Structural, electrical and optical properties of Zn1−xCuxO (x = 0.00–0.09) nanoparticles

Abstract

Pure and copper doped zinc oxide nanoparticles (Zn1−xCuxO) of different concentrations (x = 0.0, 0.03, 0.06 and 0.09 wt%) were synthesized by using co precipitation method. During the next phase, effect of Cu concentration on structural, electrical and optical properties of ZnO-NPs were investigated with the multiple techniques like XRD, UV–visible spectroscopy, FTIR, and two probe methods. The XRD analysis confirmed hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure having crystallite sizes ranging between 18.3 and 24.2 nm. Rotational and vibration mode of different functional groups (OH, CH, C = O and ZnO) were calculated using FTIR spectra. Moreover, the UV visible spectroscopy identified a band gap (3.10–2.30 eV) of pure and Cu doped ZnO-NPs. Finally, electrical properties like conductivity was increased and whereas, the resistivity decreased with increasing Cu dopant concentrations. Overall, addition of Cu as doping agent improved the structural, optical and electrical properties ZnO-NPs and could enable multiple further potential applications like solar cell, energy storage and other optoelectronic devices.

Keywords

• Zinc oxide NPs
• Co-precipitation
• Hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure
• Conductivity
• Resistivity
• Solar cell