Structural and Optical Studies on Nanosized Thermoelectric Oxide-Zn1−xAlxO

Abstract

Aluminum doped ZnO ([Formula: see text]AlxO, [Formula: see text], 0.02, 0.03 and 0.04) (AZO) nanoparticles were synthesized using citrate-gel method. We report the effect of aluminum doping along with variation of metal to citrate ratio on structural and optical properties of AZO nanoparticles with crystallite size optimization. The X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed Wurtzite crystal structure wherein the crystallite size was within the range of 15–40[Formula: see text]nm. Optical properties were studied with the help of UV-Visible spectroscopy. Bandgap calculated using Tauc plot is found to be between the range of 2.39–2.75[Formula: see text]eV and morphological analysis using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) showed the distribution of synthesized material.