Preparation and characterization of gallium-doped zinc oxide nanopowders with high electrical conductivity

Gallium-doped zinc oxide nanopowders with high electrical conductivity were prepared by calcining the precursor synthesized from ZnSO4 center dot 7H(2)O, GaCl3 and NH4HCO3 by co-precipitation method. The obtained samples were characterized by FE-SEM, TEM, XRD, XPS and BET techniques. The precursor particles were in the shape of sheet-like with size about several hundred nanometers. The electrically conductive zinc oxide particles, in the shape of sphere-like, were about 10 similar to 40 nm with low agglomeration, and the specific surface area was 28.7 m(2)/g. XRD and XPS results showed that all the doped Ga exists as the substitution form of Ga-Zn(center dot) in the ZnO system. The volume resistivity of the product was as lower as 4.5 Omega.cm.