Facile Magnesium Doped Zinc Oxide ‎Nanoparticle Fabrication and ‎Characterization for Biological Benefits

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is the most common and widely utilized nanomaterial for biological applications due to their unique characteristics, such as biocompatibility, biosafety and antimicrobial along with thermal stability and mechanical strength. Magnesium (Cu) is considered as a significant dopant for ZnO due to their almost similar ionic radii and their role in biological activities which enhances the biological properties of ZnO. Thus, pure and magnesium doped nanocrystalline ZnO particles were synthesized through sol-gel approach in the current study. The concentration of the dopant is varied from (0.1% - 0.3%) and the composition, structural and optical characterizations were performed by using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, UV-Vis optical absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectrometer. The structural analysis confirmed that magnesium ions substitute Zn ions without altering their wurtzite structure with a high degree of crystallization. Morphological analysis confirmed that the magnesium doping process strongly influences the morphology of ZnO nanoparticles. PL measurement had been carried out at room temperature in which high intensity broad emission peaks were observed in the visible region around 450 - 700 nm that indicates the superposition of green emission bands. Thus, green photo luminescent magnesium doped ZnO nanoparticles from the current study are proposed to be highly beneficial as biosensors, photocatalysts and light-driven antibacterial agents.