Structural and magnetic property studies on low temperature chemically synthesised one-dimensional Zn_1-xNi_xO nanorods

One-dimensional Zn_1-xNi_xO nanorods have been established through a facile surfactant/template free low temperature hydrothermal route, which involves the direct growth of the nanorod-like structures from an aqueous alkaline phase. The monophasic wurtzite structure of the Ni-doped ZnO nanocrystallites were initially studied using the X-ray diffractograms and their rod-like morphological appearance and homogeneity were analyzed through the aid of electron microscopes. Moreover, the substitution of Ni ions was found to contain the oxygen related vacancies and defect states in the nanostructures, through suppressing the E₂(high) and E ₁(LO) modes in the Raman spectra. A similar trend was also observed in the subband gap emission, over the visible region of the emission spectra. The magnetic property studies on the Zn_1-xNi_xO semiconducting nanorods revealed the presence of paramagnetic characteristics at room temperature and antiferromagnetic interactions at 20 K.