ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Chem.
Sec. Nanoscience
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fchem.2025.1598509
This article is part of the Research TopicHydrothermal Synthesis of Nanomaterials and StructuresView all articles
Influence of Defects on the Enhancement of Thermoelectric Properties in Sn-doped ZnO Nanostructure Synthesized Via Hydrothermal Route
Provisionally accepted
Danish Arif1
Rajwali Khan2Adeel Younas Abid3*Kashif Safeen4
Dr Adnan Ali5Khizra Akram6Kamal Hussain Khan6
Zulfiqar Ali7
Akif Safeen1*- 1University of Poonch Rawalakot, Rawalakot, Pakistan
- 2National Water Center, University College, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- 3University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan
- 4Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
- 5Government College University, Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan
- 6Women University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Bagh, Kotli, Azad Kashmir, Pakistan
- 7Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nilore, Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The efficiency of materials' thermoelectric properties is often limited by various factors, and enhancing these properties through defect engineering is an effective strategy. This study investigated the defects-induced thermoelectric characteristics of Sn-doped ZnO nanoparticles.The samples were synthesized using the hydrothermal technique with varying concentrations of Sn. X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed that pure and Sn-doped ZnO nanoparticles exhibit a wurtzite structure, with an average crystallite size ranging from 22.8 to 18.1 nm. SEM micrographs revealed rod-like morphology which changes into spherical and irregular morphologies across all samples, with increased agglomeration observed with doping. EDX analysis verified the Sn incorporation into Sn-doped ZnO nanostructure. The photoluminescence (PL) spectrum showed significantly enhanced green emission, attributed to an increase in defect concentrations with doping. The electrical conductivity is increased with doping while the Seebeck coefficient reached the highest value of 166 μV/K for the SZ-2 sample, which is higher than any other synthesized sample. This behavior of the thermoelectric properties can be attributed to the presumable increased free carrier density induced by Sn doping in the ZnO crystal lattice, which enhanced both the Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity, thereby improving thermoelectric efficiency.
Keywords: ZnO, hydrothermal, Doping, thermoelectric, Sustainable energy
Received: 23 Mar 2025; Accepted: 12 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Arif, Khan, Abid, Safeen, Ali, Akram, Khan, Ali and Safeen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Adeel Younas Abid, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, 40010, Punjab, Pakistan
Akif Safeen, University of Poonch Rawalakot, Rawalakot, Pakistan
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.