Raman scattering and photoluminescence properties of Ag doped ZnO nano particles synthesized by sol–gel method

Abstract

Ag doped ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized through sol–gel technique. Hence, the synthetic approach provides a simple, easy, low cost effective and convenient route to obtain large quantities of Ag doped ZnO nanoparticles which were calcined at different temperatures (300, 350, 400 and 450 °C). The morphological studies, optical properties, phase purity and crystallite size were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDAX), transmission electron microscope (TEM), ultra violet spectroscopy (UV), photoluminescence (PL), FT-Raman and atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis. XRD patterns confirmed that the synthesized material is polycrystalline ZnO with hexagonal wurtzite structure and the average crystallite size varied from 17 to 11 nm. The optical band gap of the nanoparticles was tuned from 3.22 to 3.15 eV. The TEM study clearly shows the formation of nano spheres. Photoluminescence studies reveal that the Ag doped ZnO sample has the blue shift emission bands were observed. From the Raman spectrum all the peaks observed in samples matched with the Raman active modes of ZnO wurtzite structure.