We have doped Cu in ZnO. we didn't get any extra peak other than ZnO according to it's JCPDS file. but height for XRD intensity is reduced as doping concentration is increased from 3% >5% >10%. How can we explain the scenario here.
Dear Tasnim,
you may go for x-ray fluorescence for Cu detection. 3 to 10% of Cu contents are easily seen.
XRD peak reduction may be due to peak broadening induced by stresses of the ZnO host lattice caused by doping.
In addition the additional Cu atoms also contribute to x-ray attenuation. Please note that you go up to 10% additional Cu in your sample. That's a lot.
Crystallite size may also go down for increased Cu doping and thus peak widths increased combined with a decrease of peak heights.
For example please have a look at table 1 of the attached link:
Article Effect of N and Cu Doping on Structure, Surface Morphology a...
You may share a bit more about your sample(s) such as kind of production and type of sample, powder or film? etc.
... or even the diffractograms... so we can see how much peak intensity is decreased....or even additional background shows up....
Thanks in advance.
Dear Tasnim,
you may go for x-ray fluorescence for Cu detection. 3 to 10% of Cu contents are easily seen.
XRD peak reduction may be due to peak broadening induced by stresses of the ZnO host lattice caused by doping.
In addition the additional Cu atoms also contribute to x-ray attenuation. Please note that you go up to 10% additional Cu in your sample. That's a lot.
Crystallite size may also go down for increased Cu doping and thus peak widths increased combined with a decrease of peak heights.
For example please have a look at table 1 of the attached link:
Article Effect of N and Cu Doping on Structure, Surface Morphology a...
You may share a bit more about your sample(s) such as kind of production and type of sample, powder or film? etc.
... or even the diffractograms... so we can see how much peak intensity is decreased....or even additional background shows up....
Thanks in advance.
Dear Tasnim
I agree the all above answers, i think if you can increase Cu doped greater than 10% to confirm presence Cu in the first, after that you can reduce ratio of Cu doping in your samples.
From my experience with doping of wurtzite and rocksalt structures. It seems that you achieve really good work because you load high amount of Cu Cation without any phase segregation (second phase of CuO), and the solubility of Cu in ZnO is good even at high doping amount. It seems that you anneal your powder at low temp. < 300 C, temperature is very important parameter here. Since ZnO has octahedra and tetrahedra, you have to know where the Cu2+ is occupied, I think this can be achieved by Rietveld refinement to see the bond length of both sites. The presence of Cu+2 (which you achieve successfully without other ions such as Cu+) may do some distortion in the unit cell of host material and may induce microstrain, dislocation, stacking fault..etc, . Therefore, shifting of peaks is a good indicator of the successfully substitution of Cu2+ in the Wurtzite lattice. Furthermore the coherent domain size may also decrease or increase. do not forget that ZnO and CuO have different crystal system, hexagonal 186 and rocksalt 225, you may have little comments about this along with the difference of ions size of Cu2+ and Zn2+. Finally, you can find huge discussion about this issue everywhere.
Good Luck
Dear Tasnim,
If you have a limited amount of your powders, you would use the lose powder technique and use the WDXRF spectrometry to measure and determine the elements appear on the samples and its contents.
If you measure the XRD data of three samples (i) the starting ZnO material, (ii) the starting ZnO powder, and (iii) the independently doped 3 wt%, 5 wt% and 10 wt% of Cu in ZnO, then compare the measured XRD patterns. You will then clearly see if the Cu peaks appear the XRD data of the doped 3 wt%, 5 wt% and 10 wt% of Cu in ZnO. If so, you can use either the High Score Plus software, or Jade to identify your XRD data.
Subsequently, if all of the phases are identified, you could use Rietveld refinement to perform quantitative phase analysis and structural refinement of your XRD data.
All the best for the year 2019.
Husin SITEPU
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