A Chemical Synthesis of Ferromagnetic Zn_0.99Co_0.01O Nano-Needles

Zn_0.99Co_0.01O nano-needles are synthesized by using pure ZnO powder as the starting material via chemical reactions in ammonia aqueous solution. The nano-needles show the room-temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM) characterized by using a superconducting quantum interference device. Non-reductive chemical synthesis steps ensure to prevent forming Co-metal nanoclusters within the doped sample. All the results of thermal gravimetric analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction and ultraviolet spectroscopy demonstrate that Co ions have doped into ZnO lattices and occupied some Zn sites without changing the wurtzite structure of ZnO lattices, and no potential second phase except for the doped Co ions substituting the Zn sites in ZnO lattice can account for the observed RTFM behaviour. Moreover, the synthesis process is of high reproducibility over 80% which is higher than that of commonly-used sol-gel method.