Study of defect formation processes under heavy ion irradiation of ZnCo2O4 nanowires

In recent years, particular attention has been paid to the study of the possibility of using ionizing radiation to modify the properties of nanomaterials. The main goal of these studies is to study the processes of evolution of defects formed during the interaction of incident particles with nanostructures, which has a significant difference from the processes of defect formation in bulk materials. In this paper, we consider the effect of heavy ion irradiation with O2+ (28 MeV), Kr15+ (147 MeV) and Xe22+ (225 MeV) heavy ions on the structural and conductive properties of ZnCo2O4 nanowires obtained by electrochemical synthesis. The irradiation fluence was selected taking into account the possibility of simulating the appearance of single point defects and their subsequent evolution (1010 ions/cm2), as well as the effect of overlapping defect regions formed during the passage of ions in the crystal structure (1012 ions/cm2). The study found that at low irradiation fluences for all ions, partial annealing of structural defects due to irradiation was observed. At the same time, the use of Xe22+ heavy ions at low irradiation fluence can significantly change the structural and conductive properties of nanowires, as well as significantly increase the rate of the photocatalytic decomposition of organic dyes. In the case of high irradiation doses, the effects of overlapping defect regions for O2+ and Kr15+ ions lead to an increase in the degree of structural changes; however, for Xe22+ ions, material degradation is observed due to the destruction of crystalline bonds. The presented results will make a significant contribution to the development of the technology of using ionizing radiation to modify the properties of nanomaterials by removing structural distortions and deformations with small radiation doses. •The study of morphological changes in nanowires under the action of irradiation.•Study of changes in structural characteristics and deformation degree of ZnCo2O4 nanowires.•Dynamics of changes in the refractive index for ZnCo2O4 nanowires after irradiation.•Dynamics of change in porosity.