Structural, morphological and optical properties of Bi-doped ZnO nanoparticles synthesized by a microwave irradiation method

In this work, the effect of Bi doping (up to 5 wt%) on the structural, morphological and optical properties of ZnO nanoparticles prepared by a microwave assisted chemical route has been investigated. The synthesized Bi-doped (BZO) samples were widely characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. BZO samples were found to be polycrystallines with a hexagonal wurtzite structure. The presence of Bi modified the morphology as well as the average particles size. The optical and photoluminescence properties of BZO samples were also investigated showing a decrease of the band gap energy (E g ) values with Bi doping level and a modifications of the photoluminescence pattern.