Structural, FTIR and photoluminescence studies of Fe doped ZnO nanopowder by co-precipitation method

An investigation on Fe-doped ZnO (Zn1-xFexO, x = 0, 0.03, 0.06 and 0.09 mM) nanopowder have been synthesized by co-precipitated method annealed at 550 C were reported. The structural, morphological and optical properties of the samples were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive spectra (EDS) analysis, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), UV Visible spectroscopy, and photoluminescence (PL) techniques, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The XRD spectrum shows all the samples are hexagonal wurtzite structure. The presence of functional groups and chemical bonding are confirmed by FT-IR. The PL spectra of the Zn(1-x)Fex(x)O systems show that the shift in near band edge (NBE) UV emission from 344.54 to 364.21 nm and a shift in green band (GB) emission from 484 to 540 nm which conforms the substitution of Fe into the ZnO lattice. UV Visible measurement showed a decrease in the energy gap with increasing Fe content, probably due to an increase in the lattice parameters. It is also found that these results are in good agreement with other calculated and experimental results. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V.