Blue-emitting ZnO sol and film obtained by sol-gel process

In this paper, bright blue-emitting ZnO sol and film were prepared by sol-gel process and the luminescent properties were investigated. The absorption spectrum of the sol consists of a wide band with two steps in the long wavelength region. The sol and film show a single wide blue-emission band under excitation of UV light, while the excitation spectra are composed by multiple bands. The quantum yield of the ZnO sol is 0.52 when the excitation wavelength is 348 nm. The particle size of the film is smaller than 10 nm, which results in the fine structure of the absorption and excitation spectra.