Hajra Khan2018-04-092018-04-092017https://escholar.umt.edu.pk/handle/123456789/2931Supervised by: Dr.Muhammad Imran JameelThis thesis reports sol-gel synthesis of pure and Fe doped (5, 10, 15 and 20)% ZnO nanoparticles. All samples were prepared using appropriate precursors followed by annealing at 600ºC for 10 hours. Resulting materials were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Ultraviolet-Visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis). XRD spectra confirm the formation of highly crystalline and pure phase ZnO nanoparticles with hexagonal wurtzite structure. Fe doping give rise to slight changes in peak intensities, peak widths and crystallite size (31-38.8 nm) which indicates that Fe has successfully dissolved into ZnO without altering host crystal structure. SEM reveals predominant spherical morphology for undoped samples with presence of small amounts of rods and sheet like structures in doped samples. UV-Visible spectra show maximum absorbance in the UV-Vis region with a significant increase in band gap energies upon doping from 3.12 to 3.64 eV.enHexagonal wurtzite structureUltraviolet-Visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis). XRDMS thesisThesis