Investigation of Synthesized ZnO Nanoparticles

In the present study, undoped ZnO and Mn, Cu and Co doped (5 mol%) ZnO nanoparticles have been synthesized by hydrosis method and structural, optical, magnetic properties of these samples have been performed. Crystal sizes of the undoped and doped ZnO nanoparticles have been determined to be ∼12 nm by XRD analysis. The crystallite size of ZnO nanoparticles have been observed to be decreased by doping process. A single, broad and unresolved EPR signal with additional two resonance peaks, Ia and Ib which are believed to be related with oxygen and zinc damage centers, and have been arised for the undoped ZnO nanoparticles. Six resolved, four resolved and a single unresolved EPR resonance signals were also recorded for the Mn, Cu and Co doped ZnO nanoparticles, respectively. UV irradiation caused some organoleptic changes for undoped and doped ZnO nanoparticles. Also, some new EPR resonance lines have also been arised for UV-irradiated ZnO nanoparticles which were accepted to be originating from the formation of oxygen and/or zinc damage centers during the UVirradiation process. From UV-Vis studies, the absorbance peaks for the synthesized ZnO nanoparticles have been appeared at ∼360 nm and the mean gap energy was calculated to be 3.20-3.32 eV. The band gap enery of undoped ZnO have found to be decreased by doping process.