Effect of Pb doping on the structural, optical and electrical properties of sol–gel ZnO nanoparticles

Abstract Pure and Pb-doped ZnO NPs were synthesized using the sol–gel method. The structural and morphological properties were investigated via XRD, FTIR and FE-SEM. A detailed study of the effect of Pb on the properties of ZnO NPs ascertained many interesting results. XRD analysis showed that doped and undoped samples have hexagonal wurtzite structures and the average grain size increases from 21.2 to 27.8 nm with doping. Morphological analysis of undoped and Pb-doped ZnO NPs indicated that they are composed of quasi-spherical particles. Optical and electrical characteristics were also evaluated by UV–Vis spectroscopy and electrical measurements. These studies revealed that the Pb doping resulted in a blue shift of the absorption edge and thus increasing the gap band, from 3.39 to 3.53, and the electrical resistance. Based on these characteristics, the possible use of the sol–gel synthesized Pb–ZnO for conductometric gas sensing, was also discussed.