Effects of aluminum (Al) incorporation on structural, optical and thermal properties of ZnO nanoparticles

In this research article, pure and 1 %, 3 % and 5 % aluminium doped zinc oxide nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared via sol-gel method and then calcined at 500 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, UV-Vis spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques were used to investigate the structural, optical and thermal properties of synthesized pure and Al doped ZnO nanoparticles. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analysis revealed high purity of nanoparticles in the synthesized products without any impurity peaks. Mean dimension of the nanoparticles was ~28 nm and they were hexagonal in shape, according to the images analyzed by transmission electron microscope (TEM). The optical absorption spectra of pure and Al doped ZnO samples studied using UV-Vis spectrometry have been presented and we have observed that the band gap increases with increasing Al concentration. In FT-IR spectra, the broad absorption peaks around 485 cm⁻¹ and 670 cm⁻¹ were assigned to Zn–O vibration. Above 450 °C, the TG curve became flat what means there was no weight loss. In the DSC curve it is seen that the transition at 150 °C was highly exothermic because of structural relaxation and on doping the exothermic peaks became shifted to the lower value of temperature. These types of materials are very useful in optoelectronics applications.