Effect of rare earth metal ion Ce3+ on the structural, optical and magnetic properties of ZnO nanoparticles synthesized by the co-precipitation method

Abstract

The unadulterated zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) and various concentration of Ce3+ ions (0.05, 0.10 and 0.15 M) doped ZnO NPs were synthesized by Co-precipitation method. The X-ray diffraction shows that the ZnO and Ce doped ZnO nanoparticles retained the wurtzite hexagonal structure. The oxidation state of Zn (2p), O (1s) and Ce (3d) were confirmed by XPS measurement. The morphological and chemical compositions were identified using HRSEM and EDAX spectra. The FT-IR spectrum shows the stretching vibration of ZnO at 418 and 416 cm−1 for unadulterated and Ce doped ZnO NPs respectively. The photoluminescence spectra was used to identify the zinc vacancies, oxygen vacancies and surface defects. Micro-Raman spectra studies describes, the phonon mode intensity decreases with increase in Ce3+ ions concentration. The unadulterated and Ce doped ZnO NPs showed significant changes in the M–H loop where the diamagnetic behavior of ZnO changes to ferromagnetic nature when doping with Ce3+ ions.