Synthesis and Characterization of Al doped ZnO (AZO) by Sol-gel Method

Al doped ZnO (AZO) nanoparticles have been successfully synthesized by the simple sol-gel method. The starting materials of Al doped ZnO were Zn(CH₃COO)₂·2H₂O and Al(OH)(CH₃COO)₂. Preparation of AZO using polyethylene glycol as a surfactant. The solution of precursors was stirred at 60 °C for 2 hour in the conditions of Al contents are 0%, 2%, 3% and 4% (g/mL), respectivelly. In the last step reaction, gelation occurred from solution to sol gel. The sol gel then were dried at 60 °C following by annealing process for crystalization. By this simple sol gel method, the nanoparticles have been produced. The characterizations were conducted X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourrier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) and X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF). XRD analysis reveals that all samples has crystallizes in polycrystalline nature and exhibit no other impurity phase. The variation of Al doped ZnO slighly affect the crystallinity and crystal size. Both crystallinity and crystal size decrease with increasing of Al content in AZO. Morphology of AZO shown the particle distribution more equitable with increased Al content. The synthesized AZO gaved shift peak absorption of asymetric and symetric vibrations of Zn-O-Zn around wavelengths of 680 cm^-1 and 1630 cm^-1 atributed of the uptake of the Al-O-Al bond instead Zn-O-Zn. XRF analysis shown that the increase ratio of Al entering into Zn influenced the Al dopant concentration.