Synthesis and studies on structural and optical properties of zinc oxide and manganese-doped zinc oxide nanoparticles

Wet chemical techniques have been used to synthesize undoped and Mn-doped nanoparticles at room temperature. Highly stable pure and 5.0 weight % Mn-doped ZnO nanoparticles have been prepared. The morphologies, structures and optical properties of the as-prepared samples were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and UV-Vis spectra. The results clearly reveled that both the pure and doped samples had a wurtzite hexagonal phase. The SEM studies illustrated that grain size decreases with Mn doping, with average diameter $\sim$ 30 nm, which is in good agreement with the average crystalline size calculated by Scherrer's formula. The strong absorption band in the UV region for the prepared samples can be attributed to the band edge absorption of the wurtzite hexagonal ZnO.