A Facile Green Synthesis and Optical Characterization of Nano Zinc Aluminate Phosphor

Abstract

This study presents a facile green synthesis of zinc aluminate nanophosphor by the microwave combustion method. Natural Piper nigrum seeds extract was used as a combustion agent. To study the effect of annealing temperature on structural, compositional, and optical properties of nano zinc aluminate, as-synthesized sample was further annealed at temperatures 700⁰C and 900⁰C. The structural and optical characterizations were carried out using XRD, UV-Vis DRS, FTIR, and PL spectroscopy. The XRD and FTIR confirmed the formation of nano zinc aluminate. The calculated average crystallite sizes were between 5-20 nm. The effective energy bandgap of prepared nano zinc aluminate was found to be 4.48 eV, larger than the bulk bandgap of zinc aluminate. Further, the effective band gap was increased with higher annealing temperatures. The PL spectra exhibited intense emission in the UV and blue region with weak emission in the red region.