Doping of Cerium, Boron and Sulphur with ZnO Nanoparticles and their Impact on Lattice Parameters, Studied through UDM Model

Abstract

Un-doped and tri-doped ZnO nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by the simple sol-gel method. Tri-doped nanoparticles of ZnO were prepared by using Ce, B and S as a dopant in concentrations of 1, 2 and 4 wt% with respect to ZnO. The effect of Ce, B and S on the ZnO nanoparticles was investigated by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) techniques against particles size, morphological and structural properties. The XRD patterns confirmed that, the samples are hexagonal (wurtzite) in structure with no additional peak, which suggests the doping of Ce, B and S in to the regular Zn sites in the ZnO crystal structure. The lattice constants were calculated by using X-ray diffraction data and it is found that lattice parameters decreased with increasing of Ce, B and S content. The average grain size was calculated by using Scherrer’s formula for pure and doped ZnO samples. The presence of functional groups were analysed from FTIR spectra.