Interplay Effects in the Co-Doping of ZnO Nanowires with Al and Ga Using Chemical Bath Deposition.

The simultaneous co-doping of ZnO nanowires grown by chemical bath deposition is of high interest for a large number of engineering devices, but the process conditions required and the resulting physicochemical processes are still largely unknown. Herein, we show that the simultaneous co-doping of ZnO nanowires with Al and Ga following the addition of Al(NO) and Ga(NO) in the chemical bath operates in a narrow range of conditions in the high-pH region, where the adsorption processes of respective Al(OH) and Ga(OH) complexes on the positively charged -plane sidewalls are driven by attractive electrostatic forces. The structural morphology and properties of ZnO nanowires are significantly affected by the co-doping and mainly governed by the effect of Al(III) species.