Synthesis, structure and ferromagnetic properties of Mn-doped ZnO nanoparticles

Nanosized Mn-doped ZnO particles were synthesized by a rheological phase reaction precursor method and the thermal decomposition of the oxalate precursors was studied by thermogravimetry and differential thermal analysis in air atmosphere. X-ray analysis reveals that the Mn-doped ZnO crystallizes in a wurtzite structure. The lattice constants of Zn 1− x Mn x O increase slightly when Mn is doped into ZnO. TEM analysis shows that the average diameter of the nanoparticles is about 10–13 nm. In addition, magnetization measurements under field cooling conditions reveal that the Mn-doped ZnO nanoparticles show ferromagnetic behaviour at room temperature and both the susceptibility and coercive force of Zn 0.95 Mn 0.05 O are larger than those of Zn 0.97 Mn 0.03 and Zn 0.93 Mn 0.07 . This work demonstrates that Mn can be doped into nanosized ZnO by the method of rheological phase reaction, which represents an important method to synthesize a nanosized diluted magnetic semiconductor.