Structural and optical characteristic of chalcone doped ZnO nanoparticles

This work was conducted primarily to study the structural and optical properties of a chalcone doped ZnO nanoparticles. These nanomaterials were fabricated for the first time by means of a facile method. The X-ray diffraction, Scanning electron microscope, FTIR spectroscopy and diffuse reflection spectra have been used for characterization. The doped specimens showed hexagonal wurtzite structure with high purity phase, whereas the morphology of spherical ZnO was slightly distorted after doping. The vibration band of ZnO at 438.57 cm−1 was shifted to the higher wave number of 443.51 and 449.28 cm−1 for the dopant 0.5 and 1.5%, respectively. Loading the chalcone on ZnO has resulted in shifting the absorption edge of ZnO to the visible region and decreased the energy band gap.