TITLE:
Co-Precipitation Synthesis and Characterization of Nanocrystalline Zinc Oxide Particles Doped with Cu2+ Ions
AUTHORS:
Mergoramadhayenty Mukhtar, Lusitra Munisa, Rosari Saleh
KEYWORDS:
Cu-Doped ZnO; Structural Properties; Room Temperature Ferromagnetism
JOURNAL NAME:
Materials Sciences and Applications,
Vol.3 No.8,
August
22,
2012
ABSTRACT: Nanocrystalline Cu-doped ZnO particles were synthesized by the co-precipitation method. The composition, structural, optical and magnetic characterizations were performed by energy dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy, X-Ray diffraction, UV-Visible spectrometer, and vibrating sample magnetometer. The results confirmed that nanocrystalline Cu-doped ZnO particles have a hexagonal wurtzite structure with a high degree of crystallization and a crystallite size of 10 - 16 nm. For Cu above 11 at%, the X-Ray diffraction pattern possessed CuO secondary phase which shows the solubility limit of Cu in the ZnO lattice. Up to 11% at Cu, the presence of Cu in the ZnO lattice as Zn substitution indicated by an in- crease in lattice parameter values. Nanoparticles showed weak ferromagnetic characteristics at room temperature. The absence of secondary phase related to magnetic precipitate shown intrinsic ferromagnetic behaviour.