Optical, structural, electrical and photocatalytic properties of aluminum doped zinc oxide nanostructures

The Al-doped ZnO (Zn1-xAlxO, x = 0.00, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, and 0.08) nanostructures were synthesized by the chemical vapor deposition technique. Analysis by X-ray diffraction reveals that both undoped and Al-doped ZnO nanostructures are crystallized in a single-phase wurtzite structure with a preferred orientation along the (101) plane. The addition of Al was studied to see how it influenced bond length, crystallite size, unit cell volume, lattice strain, and dislocation density. Field-emission scanning electron microscope imaging showed a significant variation in the morphology with increasing the Al doping level. Absorption spectra in the UV–Visible range revealed that introducing Al3+ ions into the ZnO lattice causes a blue shift in the optical band gap, which was explained according to Burstein-Moss effect and variation of the electronic structure. The direct electrical conductivity measurement showed a …