a Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU), College of Sciences,

Department of Physics, Riyadh 11623, Saudi Arabia

b Laboratory of Physics of Materials and Nanomaterials Applied at Environment (LaPhyMNE), Faculty of Sciences in Gabes, Gabes University, 6072 Gabes,

Tunisia

c Physics Department, Assiut University, Assiut 71516, Egypt

We reported the synthesis of phosphorus doped ZnO nanoparticles for a concentration of P ranging from 2 to 8%by a sol–gel processing technique. The structural and optical properties of these nanoparticles were characterised by different techniques. The structural study confirms the presence of hexagonal wurtzite phase with average crystallite size around 30nm. However, the optical study was shown a high absorption in the UV range and an important reflectance in the visible range. The optical band gap of P-ZnO samples were varied between 3.32 and 3.28 eV. The aim of this work is to study the effect of phosphorus doping on the structural, morphological and optical properties of ZnO nanoparticles.