X – RAY DIFFRACTION (XRD) ANALYSIS OF ZINC OXIDE (ZnO)0.5 ZIRCONIA OXIDE (ZrO2)0.5 NANOPARTICLES FOR SOLAR CELL APPLICATION

Abstract

This study investigates the structural and physical properties of (ZnO)0.5 (ZrO2)0.5 nanoparticles that were synthesized using hydrothermal method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was performed to analyze the crystallinity of the samples. The samples were found to have a cubic crystalline structure with the average size of the crystallites being in the range of 9-12nm.The XRD patterns showed distinct preferential orientations of [001] and [111] in the nanoparticles. The average crystallite size of the nanoparticles was estimated from XRD measurements using the Scherer equation. The optical properties of the synthesized particles were determined using UV-vis DRS spectroscopy and were found to be the range of 380-600nm. The band gap of samples was estimated from the UV-vis absorption spectra and were found to be in the range of 3.32-3.56eV. The results of this study demonstrate the potential of (ZnO)0.5 (ZrO2)0.5 nanomaterial for photovoltaic applications.