Synthesis and Characterization of Pure and Cu2+ Doped Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Using Sol-Gel Method

Pure and Cu2+ doped ZnO nanoparticles of size less than 50nm are synthesized by simple Sol-gel method. The prepared nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The structure, crystallite size, lattice parameters and microstrain of the prepared samples were studied using XRD analysis. The XRD spectra indicated hexagonal wurtize structure for both pure and doped samples. Also, the precise value of crystallite size and microstrain of the prepared samples were found using W-H plot. The metal oxide formation and phase purity of the prepared samples were further confirmed using FTIR analysis. The bands corresponding to ZnO formation are found around 495 cm-1 and that corresponding to Cu-O stretching vibration are found around 553 cm-1. The optical studies of the prepared samples were done using UV-Vis spectroscopy which showed indirect allowed type of transition for all samples. Also, the band gap of the prepared samples were found using Tauc plot as 3.20eV, 3.33eV and 3.31eV for pure, 1 wt. % Cu2+ and 3 wt. % Cu2+ doped ZnO nanoparticles respectively.