Effect of Ce and Cu co-doping on the structural, morphological, and optical properties of ZnO nanocrystals and first principle investigation of their stability and magnetic properties

• Ce, Cu co-doped ZnO nanocrystals were successfully synthesized by a microwave combustion method.
• With Ce–Cu co-doping, crystallite size, lattice parameters and strain of ZnO changes.
• The band gap of the synthesized samples has been varied in the range of 3.15–3.10 eV.
• The grain size of the sample is decreased with the increase in Ce–Cu co-doping.
• The magnetization measurements result into ferro and antiferromagnetic state for all co-doped samples which is in agreement with first principles theoretical calculations.

Ce, Cu co-doped ZnO (Zn1−2xCexCuxO: x=0.00, 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.04 and 0.05) nanocrystals were synthesized by a microwave combustion method. These nanocrystals were investigated by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The stability and magnetic properties of Ce and Cu co-doped ZnO were probed by first principle calculations. XRD results revealed that all the compositions are single crystalline. hexagonal wurtzite structure. The optical band gap of pure ZnO was found to be 3.22 eV, and it decreased from 3.15 to 3.10 eV with an increase in the concentration of Cu and Ce content. The morphologies of Ce and Cu co-doped ZnO samples confirmed the formation of nanocrystals with an average grain size ranging from 70 to 150 nm. The magnetization measurement results affirmed the antiferro and ferromagnetic state for Ce and Cu co-doped ZnO samples and this is in agreement with the first principles theoretical calculations.

The Ce Cu co-doping on ZnO caused the changes in the crystallite size, lattice parameters. Magnetic measurements confirmed the change from AFM to FM.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide