Influence of Dy dopant on structural and photoluminescence of Dy-doped ZnO nanoparticles

•Pure and Dy–ZnO nanoparticles have been successfully prepared in our experiment.•XRD, Raman, DRS and PL confirms presence of Dy in ZnO matrices.•The enhanced green emission demonstrate the increasing of defect concentration with Dy dopant.•Non existence of Dy emission implies the weak energy transformation of ZnO to Dy in photoexcitation.•The maximum visible emission can be tuned by varying the excitation energy and dopant concentration. Pure and Dy(1.15, 2.24, 3.33 and 4.02at.%)-doped ZnO nanoparticles were prepared by the chemical co-precipitation method. The as prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA-DTA), Raman spectroscopy, UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and photoluminescence (PL) studies. XRD studies confirm both undoped and Dy-doped ZnO nanoparticles reveal wurtzite structure with average grain size in the range of 24–16nm and are in agreement with TEM analysis. EDS confirms the presence of Dy in Dy-doped ZnO nanoparticles. Raman studies, confirm the wurtzite structure of ZnO nanoparticles besides increase in defects with doping concentration. UV–Vis DRS measurements indicated a blue shift optical band gap with Dy-doping. PL spectrum demonstrated immense enhanced green emission which attributes to the increase in defects concentration. The emissions intensity could be tuned by varying the Dy concentration and excitation wavelength as well for the application of better optoelectronic devices.