Blue luminescence from hydrothermal ZnO nanorods based PVA nanofibers

It is universally known that many polymers exhibit strong photoluminescence in the UV–Visible and near infrared range. In addition, zinc oxide (ZnO) is well knows as a promising strong luminescent material. In this sense, this work reports on the preparation and characterization of nanofibers based on zinc oxide nanorods embedding polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) for blue light emission. The interaction between both compounds was systematically investigated. The absorbance intensities of both PVA and ZnO/PVA composite nanofibers have a maximum absorbance located at 279 nm and a shoulder like band around 231 nm. The photoluminescence results show that under an excitation of 360 nm wavelength which is matching with PVA, the emission from ZnO was comparable to the emission of PVA. In addition, under an excitation of 325 nm, a remarkable blue-shift in the emission of ZnO was observed. Hence, this work offers a reference in ZnO emission conversion in a nanofibrous media.