Investigations on structural and optical properties of Al-modified ZnO nanoparticles

Abstract

The current studies are concentrated on the synthesis of Al-modified ZnO nanoparticles prepared through sol–gel method for their structural and optical properties. The wurtzite structure with single phase formation for all the samples was confirmed from the Rietveld analysis on XRD data. Nano-crystalline nature (having particle size (~ 10 to 30 nm)) of all the synthesized samples have been examined by XRD and TEM data. Optical properties were carried out from UV–Vis, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy techniques. FTIR and Raman analysis also confirms the wurtzite structure and tetrahedral configuration with coordination of oxygen ions nearby the zinc ions. The UV–Vis measurement confirms that the bandgap is blue-shifted and slow red shift for lower and higher Al-concentrations in ZnO, respectively. Visible emission spectra of PL confirms the photo generated holes with deep-level emission, which is ascribed to recombination of electrons intensely spellbound in oxygen vacancies and zinc interstitials. © 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.