Aluminum-doped zinc oxide powders: synthesis, properties and application

Aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) powder was successfully synthesized by coprecipitation. In comparison with other methods, coprecipitation method provides advantages such as facile, economic and environmental-benign. The effects of Al-doping concentration and post-sintering treatment on electrical conductivity of AZO were investigated. Moreover, we also studied the influences of Al-doping concentration, pH, and type of dye on the photocatalytic activity of AZO powders. The objective of this study is to obtain a set of optimum parameters that will allow for improving electrical conductivity and photocatalytic activity of the powders. Additionally, the synthesized AZO powders which had high performance were modified by silane coupling agent KH-550 and then reinforced into polypropylene (PP) matrix. In order to improve the electrical conductivity of AZO/PP composites, the effect of modified-AZO filler content on electrical conductivity of AZO/PP composites was investigated. In the vicinity of the percolation threshold (around 3 wt%), the AZO/PP composite’s resistivity decreased dramatically by several orders of magnitude.