Investigation on structural, morphology and photoluminescence properties of lanthanum doped zinc oxide nanostructure for optical application by co-precipitation method

Abstract

The doping of semiconductor by rare earth metal nanoparticles is an effective way for increasing photo catalytic activity. The preparation of ZnO particles with different concentrations of La doping (0, 3, 5 and 7 at.%) via co-precipitation method, and the effects of lanthanum doping concentration on the structures, morphologies and photoluminescence properties were investigated by XRD, FESEM, EDAX and PL. The XRD results indicated that the synthesized La-doped ZnO nanoparticles had the pure wurtzite structure. The crystallite size calculated by Debye–Scherrer’s formula is in the range of 36–28 nm. In addition, increasing the doping concentration of La ions in ZnO increase the defects in ZnO lattice and hence resulting in UV emission, which indicate the presence of narrow band-gap in doped nanoparticles.