Synthesis of Al doped ZnO nanoparticles by aqueous coprecipitation

•Al-doped ZnO nanoparticles have been synthesized with a simple precipitation process.•Various hydroxide compounds are intermediary phases.•Various morphologies and sizes have been obtained.

Al-doped ZnO particles were obtained by a simple route: soda addition in aqueous cationic solution. The effects of temperature, hydrolysis duration, reagent concentration and time were investigated. A non-topotactic reaction mechanism, involving firstly the precipitation of various hydroxide compounds depending on the route (low or high pH), followed by the dissolution–recrystallization of the hydroxide species into ZnO was demonstrated. The Al concentration in the final ZnO nanopowders did not exceed 0.3 at.% which correspond to the solubility limit of Al in ZnO. The different experimental conditions allow the morphology of ZnO particles to be controlled from isotropic nanoparticles of several tens of nanometers, platelets of several hundreds of nanometers or agglomerates of needle like particles.

Graphical abstractSEM image of Al doped ZnO.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide