Synthesis and characterizations of metal Fe Mg Cu doped and co doped ZnO nanoparticles by wet chemical precipitation method

Abstract

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a versatile semiconductor characterized by wide band gap of 3.37 eV, having significantly promising for applications in various devices such as electronics, energy storage, and environmental monitoring. However, the intrinsic limitations of pristine ZnO, such as low carrier concentrations leading to restricted conductivity, which necessitate the modification of its composition through the techniques such as composite formation or doping. This thesis explores the preparations of pristine ZnO, (Fe, Mg, Cu) mono-doped, (Fe/Cu, Mg/Cu) dual-doped, and Fe/Mg/Cu triple-doped ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) through a simple and cost-effective wet chemical precipitation technique. In the current work, the formation of pristine ZnO NPs and the effects of these dopants on its structure, morphology, optical properties, and electrical characteristics were systematically investigated by using the sophisticated analytical instruments namely, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Transmission electron microscope (TEM), UV visible spectrophotometer, LCR meter and Source measure unit (SMU) respectively. The motivation of this work lies in the study of structure related properties and investigating doping strategies that enabled enhancement of multifunctional performance of doped ZnO NPs. newlineIn the initial work, the prepared ZnO nanoparticles showed a hexagonal wurtzite structure, a blue shifted band gap, and strong optical transmittance in the visible region, indicating their potential application as a transparent electrode in solar energy cell. To study the doping effect on pristine ZnO nanostructures, d-block metals (Fe, Cu) and s-block metal Mg were selected. Fe- and Mg-doped ZnO nanoparticles showed crystallite sizes in Fe-ZnO NPs reduced but increased in Mg-ZnO NPs in addition of retaining hexagonal wurtzite structure, blue shifted energy band gap, and enhanced optical transmittance in visible region as compared to undoped ZnO.