Structural, optical and photoluminescence properties of copper and iron doped nanoparticles prepared by co-precipitation method

Copper (Cu) and iron (Fe) doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by co-precipitation method. The average crystallite sizes of the synthesized NPs were found to be 28 and 30 nm for Cu and Fe doped ZnO NPs respectively. From FESEM images, Cu and Fe doped ZnO NPs showed that the spherical structure morphology. The amount of dopant (Cu 2+ and Fe 3+ ) ions incorporated with ZnO NPs was determined by EDAX. FT-IR spectra confirmed the presence of Zn–O stretching bands at 438, 416 and 431 cm −1 in the respective ZnO NPs. Optical absorption spectra revealed the estimated band gap was found to increase for Cu and Fe doped ZnO NPs as compared to the pure ZnO NPs. The photoluminescence measurements revealed the broad emissions were composed seven different bands due to zinc vacancies, oxygen vacancies and surface defects.