Synthesis of heavily doped nanocrystalline ZnO:Al powders using a simple soft chemical method

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Abstract

Aluminum doped nanocrystalline zinc oxide powders were synthesized using a simple soft chemical method from precursor solutions having different Al doping levels (0–20 at.% in steps of 5 at.%). X-ray diffraction studies showed that the product has pure hexagonal wurtzite structure without any secondary phases such as Al2O3 and ZnAl2O4 etc. The preferential orientation plane was found to be (101) for all the samples irrespective of the Al doping level. But the degree of crystallinity of the powder gradually decreased as the doping level increased. The SEM images revealed that the crystals have hexagonal prism like structure when the Al doping level was 5 at.% and the shape changes gradually and attains a thread like structure for heavy doping. The EDAX and FTIR studies confirmed the proper incorporation of Al3+ ions in the Zn2+ sites of the ZnO lattice even in the heavily doped powders. The optical band gap increased remarkably (from 3.12 to 3.48 eV) with the increase in the Al doping level.

Keywords

Aluminum Dope Zinc Oxide ZnAl2O4 ZnAl2O4 Phase Nanocrystalline Zinc Oxide ZnAl2O4 Spinel Phase 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Notes

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Dr. B. Sakthivel, Department of Physics, AVVM Sri Pushpam College (Autonomous), Poondi for his excellent encouragement and support. Financial support from the University Grants Commission of India through the Major Research Project (F. No. 40-28/2011) is gratefully acknowledged.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Post Graduate and Research Department of PhysicsAVVM Sri Pushpam College (Autonomous)Poondi, ThanjavurIndia

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