Influence of Synthesis Route on the Structural and Optical Properties of a Potential Multifunctional Oxide: Zn1-xSrxO.

We report the synthesis of Sr doped ZnO (Zn1-xSrxO with x=0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.03 and 0.04) by three different methods to study the dependence of synthesis on the structural and optical properties. The study is a comparison of auto combustion, citrate gel and co-precipitation method derived oxide samples. A comparative analysis like this enabled us to identify the right method for doping Sr in the ZnO matrix with minimum additional reflections. Further analysis revealed the formation of defects in the crystal can act as potential phonon scattering centres for thermoelectric application. Absorption data reveal that, while auto combustion method led to excellent absorption in the visible light region, only 3% doped ZnO by citrate gel exhibited the same and was completely absent in the materials derived from traditional co-precipitation technique. Such absorption between 400 to 700 nm by just a mono doped binary oxide may lead to excellent photocatalytic dye degradation properties. Also, it was found that Burstein Moss shift and introduction of Sr-3d levels in conduction band can further enhance the electrical conductivity which again is a way to tune thermoelectric figure of merit. Hence studying such a simple binary oxide doped with Sr becomes important as it can be a very good multi multifunctional material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]