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Praseodymium – A Competent Dopant for Luminescent Downshifting and Photocatalysis in ZnO Thin Films

2018; De Gruyter; Volume: 73; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1515/zna-2017-0430

1865-7109

Nripasree Narayanan, N. K. Deepak,

Copper-based nanomaterials and applications

Abstract Highly transparent and conducting Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films doped with Praseodymium (Pr) were deposited on glass substrates by using the spray pyrolysis method. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed the polycrystallinity of the deposited films with a hexagonal wurtzite structure, whereas the energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analysis confirmed the incorporation of Pr in the films. The optical energy gap decreased by Pr doping due to the merging of the conduction band with the impurity bands formed within the forbidden gap. The room temperature photoluminescence spectra of the Pr-doped film showed enhancement of visible emission, suggesting efficient luminescent downshifting. The photocatalytic activity of the Pr-doped films is higher than that of undoped films due to the effective suppression of the rapid recombination of the photo-generated electron-hole pairs. The impurity levels formed within the forbidden gap act as efficient luminescent centers and electron traps, which lead to luminescent downshifting and enhanced photocatalytic activity.