Effect of Mn Doping Concentration on Structural, Morphological and Optical Studies of ZnO Nano-particles

We report the crystal structure, morphology and optical properties of the Zn 1-x Mn x O nanoparticles with nominal composition (x = 0.00, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15 & 0.20) were synthesized by sol-gel route.The crystal structure analysis was carried out by X-ray diffraction technique (XRD), morphology and particle size was investigated using Transition electron microscopy (TEM), Optical characterization was performed using UV-VIS technique.The XRD studies show that samples have wurtzite (hexagonal) crystal structure.In addition to this XRD results also indicate no extra impurity or secondary phases are observed.The lattice parameters a and c of Zn 1-x Mn x O nanoparticles increase with increasing Mn content which indicates that Mn 2+ ions go to Zn 2+ ions in the ZnO lattice.The atomic packing fraction (APF) increase of Mn doped ZnO nanoparticles with increasing Mn content.TEM microphotographs show that the pure and 10% Mn doped ZnO nanoparticles are in spherical shape and their average particle size of pure and 10% Mn doped ZnO nanoparticles are found in the range of 20-60 nm.The optical energy band gap decreases with increasing Mn concentration, it may be owing to Mn clustering.