Violet emission from flower-like bundle of ZnO nanosheets

We report here the realization of a new flower-like bundle of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanosheets through a chemical synthesis route. For structural study and analysis, the fabricated nanostructures were characterized using the X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results of our investigation show a preferential growth by the selective capping of the different non-polar crystal planes in the ZnO nanocrystals. This is caused by the presence of hexamine that induces a preferred shape of the crystals. Our study of optical properties using photoluminescence and UV-visible spectroscopy reveals a strong violet emission which owes to the recombination of an electron in the zinc interstitial and a hole in the valance band. This structure is a new member in ZnO nanoresearch, and we demonstrate the visible emission properties of our chemically synthesized structures. These results should be useful in developing visible light-emitting and/nanophotonic devices. (c) 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V.