Protic Ionic Liquid Assisted Synthesis, Structural, Optical and Magnetic Properties of Mn-Doped ZnO Nanoparticles

Manganese (Mn)-doped Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by chemical precipitation method with aid of protic ionic liquid namely 1-butylimidazolium glycolate as solvent and stabilizer. The structural, optical and magnetic properties of Mn-doped ZnO nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), High resolution scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), Photoluminescence (PL) and Vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) measurements. The synthesized Mn-doped ZnO nanoparticles had hexagonal wurtzite structure with crystallite size about 17.24 nm. Furthermore, the optical energy Mn-doped ZnO nanospheres was found to be 3.35 eV. In addition, Mn-doped ZnO nanospheres showed superparamagnetic nature and acted as a photocatalyst with 94.53% for the degradation (PCD) of methylene blue (MB).