Investigation on room temperature photoluminescence of pure and aluminum doped zinc oxide nanoparticles

Pure and aluminum doped zinc oxide nanoparticles were prepared by soft chemical method. The prepared nanoparticles were characterized by XRD, SEM-EDAX, UV-Vis, PL and FT-IR studies. XRD patterns revealed that the nanoparticles were crystallized in hexagonal wurtzite structure with an average particle size of 19 nm to 26 nm. The surface morphology was explored using SEM micrographs. The incorporation of aluminum was confirmed by EDAX and FT-IR studies. The band gaps of the particles were found from 3.48 eV to 3.53 eV through UV-Vis spectral studies. The defect related mechanism was investigated using PL measurements. The chemical functional groups in FT-IR spectra proved the formation of pure and aluminum doped zinc oxide nanoparticles.