Chemical vapor synthesis and characterization of chromium doped zinc oxide nanoparticles

ZnO and Cr doped ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized by chemical vapor synthesis (CVS) which is a modified chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. The resulting powders consist of nanocrystalline particles and were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen adsorption (BET), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), element analysis, and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy. The grain size decreases with increasing dopant concentration. The lattice constants extracted by the Rietveld method from XRD data vary slightly with doping concentration. XRD and EXAFS data analysis show that the Chromium dopant atoms are incorporated into the wurtzite host lattice.