Optimized fabrication of the mesoporous ZnO via template method and its electroluminescence characteristics

Mesoporous ZnO precursors with different apertures were synthesized by a sol-gel method under neutral conditions. With the thermal oxidation method, ZnO nanocrystalline particles were prepared by calcining the precursor of the mesoporous materials in air, and then the influence of reaction conditions on the luminescence intensity was discussed. The electroluminescence results indicate that there is neither blue-shift nor red-shift in their EL spectra by comparing the EL spectra of the samples dealt with the template agents with that of the samples dealt without surfactant. Under the same electric field intensity, the EL emission intensity of calcined mesoporous precursor ZnO is enhanced enormously. In detail, the intensities of samples dealt with ODA and F-127 are 2.7 and 4.6 times higher than that of the samples dealt without template, respectively. The enhanced EL intensity may be resulted from the mesoporous structure remained on the particles surface.