Characterization of nickel (Nİ) and gadolinium (GD) doped zno nanorod thin films produced by hydrothermal method

In this study, the effects of growth temperature and doping concentration on the properties of Gd and Ni doped zinc oxide nanorods (ZnO NRs) were investigated. ZnO nucleating layer was produced on glass substrates by using sol-gel and dip coating methods. Using this nucleating layer, one-dimensional ZnO semiconductor structures were grown on glass substrates in the form of nanorods by hydrothermal method. By doping rare earth element (Gd) and transition metal (Ni) to ZnO, the effects of doping elements on the crystal structure, optical, surface morphology appearances and electrical properties of ZnO NRs were investigated. The crystal structure properties and surface morphology changes of all produced samples with doping were determined using X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM), respectively. UV-Vis spectrophotometer was used to determine the optical properties. Hall Effect device was used to characterize the electrical properties. When XRD and SEM results were examined, changes in crystal structure and surface morphology depending on the doping element and ratio could make the samples usable for different purposes and applications. In addition, SEM images showed that ZnO NRs grown at 90°C had a more suitable surface morphology and well-defined hexagonal shape compared to those grown at other growth temperatures. Based on this, it was seen that optical properties such as transmittance and band gap as well as morphological properties such as diameter, length and shape of the nanorods could be adjusted by changing the production parameters. Gd as a rare earth element and Ni as a transition metal produced at 90°C in 5 hours were doped on ZnO nanorods produced at 75°C; 90°C and 105°C in 5 hours at 1; 3; 5; 7 and 10% by weight. As a result of doping, Zn1-xNixO and Zn1-xGdxO series were obtained. The absence of any secondary phase in the X-ray diffraction patterns of the obtained samples showed that all doping elements were successfully incorporated into the ZnO crystal structure. As a result, in this study, the relationship between the structural, morphological, electrical and optical properties of Gd and Ni doped ZnO NRs, growth temperature, doping type and concentration was investigated in detail.