Optical properties of zinc oxide clusters encapsulated in a zeolite host

The optical properties of nanometer-sized semiconductor materials are of interest in areas such as photocatalysis and non-linear optics. Ultrasmall zinc oxide particles encapsulated in a porous zeolite (A) host were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, reflectance, and luminescence spectra. Compared to bulk ZnO the particles show pronounced blue shifts of the reflectance as well as the luminescence bands owing to the quantum size effect