Novel rare-earth Eu and La co-doped ZnO nanoparticles synthesized via co-precipitation method: optical, electrical, and magnetic properties

Abstract

The key goal of this study is to use a simple co-precipitation technique to make pure ZnO Nanoparticles (NPs), Eu-doped ZnO NPs (1 wt%) and Eu–La co-doped ZnO NPs (1 wt%). Conventional quantitative methods were used to characterize the produced material. The synthesized nanomaterials are highly crystalline and have hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO, according to XRD analysis. Various functional groups present in the synthesized samples are recorded by FTIR studies. From UV–Vis DRS spectra, band gap was found to be 3.22, 3.16, and 3.10 eV, respectively, for pure ZnO, Eu-doped ZnO NPs and Eu–La co-doped ZnO NPs and it was discovered that the band gap value falls as the doping proportion in the ZnO lattice increases. The occurrence of Eu and La ions in the ZnO lattice was verified by EDS spectroscopy. PL spectrum confirms the slight variation in emission wavelength compared to pure ZnO NPs. At different temperatures, electrical conductivity measurements of synthesized samples are estimated by the dielectric constant, dielectric loss, and ac conductivity with different frequencies. The Eu-doped ZnO NPs and Eu–La co-doped ZnO nanocrystals displayed room temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM) in VSM tests. VSM analysis exhibits a maximum saturation magnetization (0.05198 emu/g) for La–Eu co-doped ZnO NPs (1 wt. %), which reveals the synthesized samples can be a probable candidate for optoelectronics and spintronic device fabrication.