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Thermal and Optical Properties Correlation of Cu-doped ZnO Nanoparticles
M.E. Sayed, N.F. Osman and Y.H. Elbashar

CuO and hexahydrate zinc chloride (ZnCl₂.6H₂O) was utilised as the starting chemical at room temperature by the coprecipitation procedure, followed by dropwise additions of sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Samples were subjected to several annealing processes for ZnCuO nanoparticles at 450 C^o, with annealing times ranging from 1 to 8 hours. The effects of annealing time on structural and optical properties are compared with the outcomes of several experimental approaches.X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), and Ultraviolet-Visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis) were used to analyze the structural and optical properties of ZnCuO particles. The produced samples have a crystal structure, as shown by the XRD patterns, and increasing the annealing time process improves crystallinity. By increasing the annealing interval, “hexagonal wurtzite” nanostructures of “ZnCuO” are formed, which are visible in TEM pictures also, the “FTIR” spectra in the 400–4000 cm -1 range show peaks that correspond to “Zn-O” stretching modes, in addition to it is discovered that the optical band gap decreases and Urbach energy rises from the “UV-VIS” absorption spectra.

Keywords: FTIR; TEM; UV-VIS; XRD; ZnCuO