Synthesis, structural, optical, and thermoluminescence properties of ZnO/Ag/Y nanopowders for electronic and dosimetry applications

Abstract In this study, ZnO99.5-x/Ag0.5/Yx (where 0≤ x ≤ 10) nanopowders were synthesized by using the hydrothermal method. The structural, optical and thermoluminescence properties of the prepared nanopowders were experimentally examined. Moreover, the effect of yttrium (Y) dopant ratio on the studied properties was discussed in details. The structural, morphological, optical properties of the prepared TL material were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), and ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) respectively. The pellets of the nanopowders were exposed to X-ray doses of up to 4 Gy to investigate their thermoluminescence response, sensitivity and reproducibility. The glow curve for the ZnO/Ag/Y sample was observed at yttrium dopant ratio of 7% mol and the main peak corresponding to 165 °C. The heating rate of 7 °C/s was found to be consistent with the highest TL intensity at a low standard deviation. The best TL response with minimum standard deviation was observed at 300 °C. The optimum annealing time corresponding to the highest TL response was 30 min. The study demonstrated a linear dose response with a strong correlation coefficient equal to 0.999. The sensitivity of the co-doped ZnO/Ag/Y nanopowders (pellets) was found to be 0.28, which is lower than that of TLD-100 chips by 3.5 times. The results demonstrated the suitability of the novel synthesized TL material for electronic and dosimetry applications.