Abstract
The synthesis of ZnO/SiO2 nanocomposite doped with Co, Cu and Mn nanoparticles were performed using sol-gel method. Rietveld refinement analysis was done for the X-ray diffraction data and results showed that all samples are single wurtzite hexagonal phase and have an average crystallite size 14 nm. The lattice parameters, bond length, crystallite size, microstrain, dislocation density and the system volume were studied in details. Transmission electron microscopy technique showed that nanoparticles characterized by an elliptical shape. Fourier transform infrared and scanning electron microscope techniques proved the presence of SiO2 in the system. The energy gap values of both undoped and doped samples with Co, Mn and Cu were 2.84, 2.47, 2.71 and 2.8 eV, respectively. Photoluminescence spectra for undoped and doped ZnO/SiO2 were investigated in details.