Effect of Ce doping on the structural, optical and magnetic properties of ZnO nanoparticles

In the present study Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles and Rare Earth (RE) ion Cerium (Ce) doped ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized by chemical precipitation technique. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), transmission electron microscope (TEM), photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL), UV-visible spectroscopy and ferromagnetism behavior at room temperature. The XRD and EDX analysis revealed that Ce doped ZnO pattern matched with the ZnO pattern i.e. they exhibited hexagonal wurtzite structure and Ce ions were successfully incorporated into the ZnO nanoparticles. TEM images illustrated the average diameter of synthesized nanoparticles. The average diameter of ZnO and Ce doped ZnO nanoparticles was around 20 nm. PL measurements revealed that ZnO nanoparticles and Ce doped ZnO nanoparticles had an UV emission and a green emission while the Ce ions doping induced a red shift in the UV emission with broadening in the green emission. Direct type of transition of band gaps was confirmed by transmission spectra occurring at 3.5 and 3.2 eV respectively for ZnO nanoparticles and Ce doped ZnO nanoparticles i.e. decrease of band gap energy with doping of Ce ions in ZnO nanoparticles. The magnetization study on the Ce doped ZnO nanoparticles exposed outstanding ferromagnetism property at room temperature.