On the synthesis and characterization of ZnO/MgO nanocomposite by thermal evaporation technique

•First report on synthesis of ZnO/MgO nanocomposite by thermal evaporation process.•It is temperature dependent, irrespective of ratio of Zn:Mg initial source material.•Even this simple cost effective technique resulted good quality nanocomposite.

ZnO/MgO nanocomposites have been synthesized by an easy and cost effective thermal evaporation technique. Various growth temperatures ranging from 800 to 900 °C were tried. It is observed that the process temperature plays a key role in the formation of ZnO/MgO nanocomposite and the proper formation of ZnO/MgO nanocomposite occurs at 875 °C temperature as confirmed by X-ray diffraction studies. Scanning electron microscopic images indicate that the ZnO/MgO nanocomposite is formed as agglomerated nanoparticles distributed over a large area. Energy dispersive X-ray analyses also reveal that the Mg composition in the synthesized nanocomposite strongly depends on the process temperature. Photoluminescence (PL) spectrum exhibits a blue shift for the ZnO/MgO nanocomposite synthesized at 875 °C indicating the incorporation of Mg into the ZnO crystal lattice. A higher PL intensity ratio of band-edge to deep band emission has been observed for this sample indicating the presence of low crystalline defects.

Graphical abstractZnO/MgO nanocomposite grown by thermal evaporation technique.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide