Effect of Aluminium Metal Dosage on Surface Area, Crystallinity and Energy Band Gap of ZnO Nanostructure and Crystalline Size

ZnO nanocrystalline material embedded with different aluminum metal (Al) dosage was successfully prepared using the microwave synthetic technique and employing chitosan as capping agent. Temperature and power effects were monitored for best crystallinity outcome during synthetic operation with power impacting more effect on the nanocrystallinity of the ZnO as compared to the temperature. The surface area of the ZnO was observed to increase with increase in the metal dose while energy band gap decreased drastically before finally attaining a stable energy where further increment of metal was found to have no effect on the band gap of the semiconductor ZnO. Therefore for further research, this material is considered interesting in areas such as photode-gradation, adsorption study, heavy metal detection and coating.