Dielectric investigation and effect of low copper doping on optical and morphology properties of ZO-Cu nanoparticles

• Published in: Journal of materials science. Materials in electronics Vol. 32; no. 12; pp. 17021 - 17031
• Main Authors: Omri, K., Gouadria, Soumaya
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-06-2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Copper; Copper oxides; Dopants; Forbidden bands; Materials Science; Morphology; Nanoparticles; Optical and Electronic Materials; Optical properties; Reflectance; Sol-gel processes; Spectrum analysis; X-ray diffraction; Zinc oxide; Zinc oxides
• ISSN: 0957-4522; 1573-482X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-021-06268-9

Zinc oxide (ZnO) powders and copper-doped ones (ZO-Cu) have been synthesized by the so-called sol–gel method. They have been then characterized by four different techniques: X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV–visible spectroscopy, and impedance spectroscopy. Each sample crystallizes in the hexagonal structure. The XRD results reveal that copper oxide phase was not observed even in the sample containing the largest amount of Cu (4%-Cu), proving the good solubility of Cu within ZnO matrix. The average grains size has been enlarged by nearly 10 nm as a result of Cu dopant rate increasing from 0 to 4%. The optical results showed that the increase in Cu concentration lowers the reflectance while improving the absorption. The reflectance of the samples is of about 60% and the forbidden band value is sensitive to Cu-dopant content. The dielectric constant and the loss coefficient of the samples diminish with frequency while going up with temperature.