Question

Is zinc a semiconductor?

Answer 1

Semiconductor: A atom, molecule, or substance that has conducting property between conductor and insulator is called a semiconductor. The gap between the conducting band and valence band lies between the conductor and insulator. There are two types of semiconductors one is a p-type semiconductor and the other is an n-type semiconductor.

1. Example of semiconductor: Germanium($\mathrm{Ge}$), Silicon($\mathrm{Si}$), Arsenic($\mathrm{As}$).
2. Zinc: Most of the metal act as a conductor. Zinc is a d-block element it has a completely filled d-orbital. It can donate electrons to the oxygen to form zinc oxide which is a semiconductor.
3. An n-type semiconductor is zinc oxide. It has a large 3.37 eV bandgap and significant binding energy of 60 MeV.
4. The structure of zinc oxide is given as-

Hence, Zinc is a semiconductor.