Synthesis and crystallographic study of Co doped ZnO nano-sized powders by co-precipitation method

Co doped ZnO samples having composition Zn1-xCoxO (x= 0.00, 0.10 and 0.20) were synthesized by co-precipitation method. X- ray diffraction analysis reveals that the Co doped ZnO nanopowders crystallize in wurtzite structure without any impurity phases. The lattice constants of ZnO nanoparticles decrease slightly with increasing Co concentration. The average grain size of the Co doped ZnO nanopowders are in the range of 33-36 nm. The Williamson - Hall (W-H) analysis used to study the individual contributions of crystallite sizes and lattice strain on the peak broadening of the pure and Co doped ZnO nanopowders. The results shown that the grain sizes of the samples estimated from the W-H analysis were highly inter-correlated. The strain of the samples was estimated using W-H analysis and it is found that it goes on decreasing with enhancing Co content.