Low-cost processing of pure and Al-doped capped ZnO nano powder for industry scale applications C

Abstract

Zinc oxide and metal-doped oxides are multifunctional nanomaterials used in the Nano World due to their distinctive characteristics and unique physical and chemical properties such as extraordinary chemical stability, anti-corrosion, low electrons conductivity, a broad range of radiation absorption, high photo stability, and tremendous heat resistance. To synthesize zinc oxide and Al-doped ZnO nanostructures with the inexpensive sol-gel method is our research objective, further we aimed to analyse the characterization of undoped and Al-doped ZnO nanopowder. Al-doped zinc oxide with compositional formula AlxZn1-xO (x = 0, 2, 4, 6) was synthesized using Zinc acetate dihydrate (Zn (CH3COO)2. 2H2O) as a precursor, Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and distilled water were used as a second-hand medium for the preparation of the solution. Ethanol (CH2COOH) served as a versatile intermediate and was used as a solvent. The X-ray diffraction peaks suggest a hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure which matches with the pattern of the standard hexagonal structure of ZnO and Al-doped zinc oxide in all samples. X-ray diffraction result exhibits good crystallinity. The scanning electron microscopy images confirm the clear formation of spherical ZnO nanopowder and the change of the morphology of the nanopowder with the incorporation of the aluminium. The scanning electron microscopy results are in adjacent settlement with that estimated by the DebyeSheerer formula created on the X-ray diffraction pattern. The usual crystallite size of Aldoped zinc oxide decreases by an increase in Al concentration with capping without varying the temperature. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive x-ray analysis revealed that all samples crystallize in polycrystalline nature with wurtzite lattice. The result of energy dispersive x-ray analysis characterization shows that the ZnO nanopowders with no other main adulterated phase. Extant learning ventures this as a low-cost method for the synthesis of pure and capped Al-doped ZnO for industry scale applications.