Synthesis of Zn1-xMgxO alloyed nanostructures and the crystal evolution in annealing process

The physicochemical properties of ZnO are always determined by its chemical composition and physical form. Here we showed a new type of Mg-alloyed ZnO nanostructures by using templating method. Depending on the molar ratio of ordinary metal salts in the reagents, the Mg contents in Zn1-xMgxO alloyed nanostructures could be controlled precisely with the tunable optoelectronic properties and reached to a maximum value as high as 48%. We found that the Mg contents in the Zn1-xMgxO alloyed nanostructures were evolutive in annealing process and it illustrated that the concentrations of Mg in Zn1-xMgxO had a fixed maximum value after annealing at a corresponding temperature. Moreover, we found the precipitation of MgO in Zn1-xMgxO nanostructures was in specific crystal planes. We demonstrated that this new findings of their crystal growth characteristics can be helpful to understand the alloyed ZnO nanostructures deeply. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V.