Abstract
Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles have been prepared through the wet chemical route at a low temperature of 60 degrees C and dried at 80 degrees C for 5hrs using zinc acetate dehydrate as a starting material. The as-prepared powder was doped with dual acceptor (Na,N) at 5 and 10% molar concentration using Sodium Acetate and Ammonium Acetate as Na and N source, respectively. AAS, FTIR, XRD, UV-VIS Spectroscopy, and Hall measurement were used to study the metallic element present, chemical bonding, structural morphology, optical, and electrical properties of the nanoparticles, respectively. AAS revealed the presence of Zn and Na concentration within the standard range. The FTIR spectra observed at 480.28 cm(-1) and 470.63 cm(-1)confirmed the Zn-O bond stretching. XRD results showed the formation of ZnO nanoparticles having polycrystalline single-phase nature with hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure. The crystallite size has been found to vary between 18.1nm and 21.6 nm with changes in the doping concentration of (Na,N). High transparency in the visible region (above 90%), narrowing of direct optical bandgap (3.46-3.01eV) as dopants increase because of the s-d and p-d exchange interactions, which introduce a negative and a positive correction to the conduction and the valence-band edges respectively showed distinct optical features. The electrical characterization of the dual-doped (Na,N):ZnO exhibit p-type conductivity, with the lowest resistivity of 5.80x10(-2) Omega-cm for the 10% molar concentration. These results make dual acceptor doped (Na,N):ZnO a promising material for application in photovoltaic solar cells and other optoelectronics devices.