Band Gap Narrowıng of Mg_1-xCu_xO Nanostructured Materials

The band gap energies of MgO nanostructured can be tuned to a suitable value needed for various applications by substitution with dopant element. The study on doped compounds is to investigate band gap changes in the new materials. In this work, MgO and its doped materials Mg_1-xCu_xO (x = 0.02, 0.04, 0.06) were synthesized using a combustion method. The phase and purity of materials were studied using X-Ray diffraction (XRD). The morphology and crystallites size of the materials were examined by a Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM). It was found that the synthesis route using triethanolamine for the combustion synthesis is suitable in obtaining pure and single phase MgO and Mg_1-xCu_xO nanostructured. The presence of doped element, Cu in the MgO had caused changes in morphologies and crystallite size of the materials. The band gap energy of the materials was measured using a UV-Vis NIR spectrophotometer. The absorption edges of Mg_1-xCuxO were observed to shift to the right with respect to those of MgO as the Cu content increases, implying that band gap narrowing occurred in the materials.