Tailoring the optical properties of ZnO nano-layers and their effect on in vitro biocompatibility

Authors

V. Roge, A. Georgantzopoulou, K. Mehennaoui, I. Fechete, F. Garin, A. Dinia, A. C. Gutleb, and D. Lenoble

Reference

RSC Advances, vol. 5, no. 118, pp. 97635-97647, 2015

Description

This paper highlights the use of Al₂O₃ and SnO₂ films as protecting layers to tailor the optical properties and biocompatibility of ZnO nano-films. ZnO, ZnO/Al₂O₃ and ZnO/SnO₂ nano-films have been deposited inside 3-dimensional (3D) structures such as anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) membranes via a gas phase atomic layer deposition (ALD) process. We show that ZnO/Al₂O₃ multilayers exhibit improved excitonic photoluminescence properties compared to ZnO only, whereas ZnO/SnO₂ multilayers quench the near band edge emission signal. In addition, in vitro experiments on Caco-2/TC7 cells and Vibrio fischeri bacteria reveal that ZnO/Al₂O₃ and ZnO/SnO₂ multilayers display enhanced biocompatibility in liquid media compared to ZnO. We attribute the improvement of the biocompatibility to a lower dissolution of the ZnO nano-film when protected by Al₂O₃ or SnO₂.

Link

DOI: 10.1039/C5RA16156H