COMPARATIVE STUDY ON STRUCTURAL, MORPHOLOGICAL AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF TRANSITION METAL (MN AND AG) DOPED AND UN-DOPED ZINC OXIDE NANOPARTICLES

Nowadays, metal oxide semiconductor nanoparticles (NPs) have great attention due to their excellent material properties such as broad bandgap, high electron mobility, etc. Doping of these metal oxides with transition metals improves their electrochemical and optical properties. Herein, pure zinc oxide (ZnO) NPs, Ag-doped zinc oxide (Ag-ZnO) NPs and Mn-doped zinc oxide (Mn-ZnO) NPs were synthesized by sol-gel method. The structure and morphology of the synthesized NPs were examined by X-ray diffraction spectra, transmission electron microscope images, energy dispersive X-ray diffraction spectra, and scanning electron microscope images analysis. It observed that all three NPs have hexagonal wurtzite structures. Compared to pure ZnO NPs, the doped NPs show more agglomeration. The size of the NPs was calculated to be 16 nm, 22 nm and 36 nm respectively for ZnO, Mn-ZnO and Ag-ZnO, respectively. Structural analysis and morphological analysis reveal that doping of Mn and Ag didn't affect the crystalline structure of ZnO NPs but surface area varies due to the lattice defect. Uv-vis absorption spectra reveal the broad light absorption capability of the Ag-doped ZnO NPs. Photoluminance emission intensity was decreased in the following order: ZnO > Mn-Zno > Ag-ZnO. Quenching in the emission intensity reveals the enhanced charge transfer rate. From the Tauc plot analysis, band gap energy was estimated. Hence, optical analysis exposes the Ag-doped ZnO has superior absorption and emission property.