Synthesis of undoped and Al doped ZnO nanostructures: Molar ratio dependency and structural properties

In this study, undoped ZnO and aluminium doped ZnO (AZO) nanopowders have been successfully synthesized by low temperature hydrothermal method. In this simple method, Zinc nitrate and hexamethylenetetramine (HMT) were used as precursors for synthesising pure ZnO and aluminium nitrate is used as doping material for AZO with different molar ratios of 1%, 0. 5% and 0. 25%. The structural properties of undoped and Al doped ZnO powders has been analysed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X ray analysis (EDS). XRD results indicated that all the samples were preferentially grown in c-axis. SEM images of ZnO showed that the well faceted hexagonal nano rods were grown. Also, the SEM images of AZO are evidence for the effect of molar ratio variation on its morphology. The compositional analysis carried out using EDS revealed that Zn, O and Al are present in the sample.