Structural microanalysis of green synthesized AlxZn(1−x)O nanoparticles

Abstract

In this article, environmentally compatible, low cost and easy green synthesized pure and Al-doped ZnO nanoparticles from the Azadirachta indica leaves extract were prepared. The greenly produced nanoparticles were mainly studied for structural properties. The x-ray diffraction data show that these were crystalline with the hexagonal wurtzite phase. The average crystallite size and some other important physical parameters such as stress, strain and energy density were estimated from the Williamson Hall analysis with the help of Rietveld refinement data. It was observed that with increasing Al-concentration, the crystallite size decreased but the other parameters like stress, strain and energy density increased. It was also seen that with increasing Al addition from 0%–15% the inter-planar spacing dhkl for each hkl set of the samples first decreased and then increased, which indicates the influence of the smaller size of Al ion addition on the inter-planar distance.