Abstract
This contribution highlights our efforts to elaborate new semiconductor nanostructures for solar technologies by colloidal sol-gel route. Of particular interest to us at present are the colored powder and layers of zinc-titanium oxynitrides nanomaterials. In order to get colored oxynitrides, one can perform an ammonia induced replacement of oxygen by nitrogen. Our new low cost colloidal sol-gel route to nanosized colored ZnTiON powders and porous layers on glass will be presented. Wet films prepared from these Ti4+-functionalized ZnO sols via dip coating of glass slides are than pre-sintered at 400oC in air and annealed under ammonia gas at temperatures between 500oC and 800oC. Above the dissociation temperature of ammonia, the spectra are progressively red-shifted with increasing nitriding temperature. A structural XRD-, XPS- and EELS-analysis of our ZnTiON nano-structures will be discussed.
