Structural, morphological, and electrical properties of silver-substituted ZnAlO nanoparticles.

In this paper, nanoparticles of ( = 0.05 and = 0.1) were synthesized by the sol-gel auto-combustion method and characterized by various techniques. X-ray diffraction (XRD) for structural characterization confirms the successful formation of a cubic spinel structure with the space group 3̄. Their morphology was evaluated with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) which shows an agglomeration of nanoparticles. To characterize the electrical behavior of our compounds, we used impedance spectroscopy at temperatures ranging from 313 K to 653 K and frequencies ranging from 0.1 Hz to 1 MHz. The experimental data for the real and imaginary impedance parts were mounted on the equivalent grain resistance ( )//fractal capacitance (CPE) circuit. Indeed, the activation energies extracted from the electrical conductivity and the resistance of the grain resistance ( ) closed and confirmed a transformation of the electrical behavior confirmed by a decrease in the resistance of the materials. The study of the alternating conductivity shows a Jonscher curve behavior and a thermally activated conduction process. The variation of the exponent "" as a function of temperature shows, on the one hand, the presence of two models of conduction correlated barrier jump (CBH) and non-overlapping small polaron tunneling (NSPT) for = 0.05 and, on the other hand, a CBH model for = 0.1.