Structural analysis and band gap tailoring of Fe3+-doped Zn–TiO2 nanoparticles

We report on the analysis of morphology and electronic structure of Fe3+-doped Zn–TiO2 nanoparticles. Crystalline nature, phase, and preferred growth direction of the nanoparticles were all determined. Due to size effects and OH−–(TiO4)n complexes, variation in the energy gap with metallic and semiconducting characters on the same sample was found. The variation in the energy gap decreased, and the bang gap decayed exponentially with Fe doping and independent of the supporting substrates. Simultaneous effect of the OH− ligands on the electronic structure and the formation mechanism of nanorods and nanosheets as manifested by the rutile TiO6 octahedra units edge- and corner-shared bonding was discussed.

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