Morphology Evolution and CL Property of Ni-Doped Zinc Oxide Nanostructures with Room-Temperature Ferromagnetism

Ni-doped ZnO nanostructures were synthesized in situ through a pulsed-electrodeposition-assisted chemical bath deposition method, and the optical and magnetic properties of the nanostructures were studied. It was found that the morphology of the nanostructures evolved from a rodlike to a sheetlike structure because of the different growth modes, and a growth mechanism is proposed to explain these findings. A relatively strong UV emission was observed for the nanorods, whereas a relatively strong visible emission was seen for the nanosheets. Ni was successfully doped into the ZnO wurtzite lattice structure as revealed by X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and also verified by the cathodoluminescence characterization. Room-temperature ferromagnetism was also observed in the Ni-doped ZnO nanostrucures. The results are helpful to tailor the physical properties of ZnO by changing its morphology and composition.