Structure and optical properties of ternary ZnCdO nanopowder synthesized by sol–gel method

•The ternary ZnCdO nanocrystalline power is synthesized by sol–gel method.•The chemical states of Zn, Cd and O is identified by XPS analysis.•The NBE emission was red-shift from 380 to 405 nm due to the modulation of band gap.•The origin of NBE emission was confirmed in the temperature dependent PL measurement.

Ternary ZnCdO nanocrystalline powder with a Cd incorporation of about 5 at.% is synthesized by facile sol–gel method. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and photoluminescence (PL) were employed to investigate the structural and the optical properties in detail. The results indicated that the ZnCdO nanopowder has a hexagonal wurtzite structure of pure ZnO. The crystallite size of the nanopowder was found to be around 30 nm. The ultra-violet (UV) near-band-edge (NBE) emission of the ZnCdO nanopowder was red-shift from 380 nm (3.27 eV) to 405 nm (3.06 eV) due to the direct modulation of band gap caused by Cd substitution. The origin of ZnCdO’s near band edge emissions was confirmed in the temperature dependent PL measurement.