Synthesis and magnetic properties of Zn1-xCoxO nanorods

Magnetic Zn1-xCoxO nanorods were fabricated via direct hydrothermal synthesis. The measurements of x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoemission spectroscopy, and optical absorption spectra demonstrate the presence of cobalt in the +2 state in a tetrahedral crystal field, which indicates that Co ions have been doped into the nanorods. The observations of morphology and microstructure reveal that the Zn1-xCoxO nanorods grow along the [0002] direction through Ostwald ripening not only competing with but being assisted by oriented attachment. The field dependence of magnetization (M-H curves) of the Zn1-xCoxO nanorods measured at 300 K shows their ferromagnetic characteristics. The coercive fields (H-c) were obtained to be 98 and 36 Oe for nominal x=0.029 and 0.056, respectively. Our experimental results provide one effective method for fabrication of transition metal doped ZnO nanostructures with room-temperature ferromagnetism by direct chemical synthesis. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.