In the present work, a direct precipitation method using wet chemical reaction was used to synthesize pure and Sb doped ZnO nanoparticles. The zinc nitrate and sodium hydroxide were used as staring materials or precursors to precipitate the desired pure ZnO nanoparticles followed by calcinations at 500ºC. For the preparation of Sb doped nanoparticles stoichiometric amaount of respectively metal nitrate was dissolved in the zinc nitrate solution before precipitation. The phase purity and crystalline size of pure and Sb doped ZnO particles were characterized via X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The X-ray diffraction results indicated that the synthesized ZnO powders had a pure single phase wurtzite structure. The average particles sizes of pure ZnO was found to be 32 nm and average particles size for Sb doped ZnO was found to be in the range of 19-28 nm according to XRD measurements. Incorporation of dopant Sb influenced the particle size of the ZnO nanoparticles. Photoluminescence spectra of commercial and Sb doped ZnO were plotted for different composition (1%, 3%, 5%) of doped Sb, showed that there was increase in intensity for Sb doped ZnO (1%, 3% Sb) nanoparticles and decrease in intensity for 5% Sb doping. Finally UV-Vis spectra of pure synthesized ZnO and Sb doped ZnO nanoparticles showed blue shift in wavelength with respect to bulk value due to quantum confinement effect.
