Abstract
The synthesis of ZnO nanostructures via co-precipitation of Zn(NO3)2·2H2O in 2-aminoethanol under different reaction conditions is presented. The effect of temperature and time on crystal structure, size, morphology, and optical properties of ZnO nanopowders is studied. XRD analyses demonstrate that single crystalline wurtzite ZnO nanostructures are instantaneously formed at higher temperature, or at low temperature with growth times equal to 2 h. However, the mean crystallite size increases as a function of reaction temperature and growth time. XRD and SEM results reveal that ZnO nuclei grow along favored crystallographic planes [wurtzite (101)] in 2-aminoethanol to form single crystalline nanorods. The optical band-gap energies of ZnO crystallites measured from their UV absorption spectra increase from 3.31 to 3.52 eV with decreasing particle size. ZnO nanopowders also exhibit good photoluminescent characteristics with strong UV and weak visible (violet, blue) light emissions corresponding to surface defects and oxygen vacancies in ZnO products.
Highlights
In the past few years, ZnO-based nanostructured materials have emerged as the first-choice materials for semiconductor devices such as sensors (Chougule et al 2012; Afzal et al 2012) and solar cells (Kim et al 2013; Patra et al 2014), and in other fields as UV emitters (Zhang et al 2013), optical waveguides (Jiang et al 2012), and biomedical (Yang et al 2012) and optoelectronic devices (Zhang et al 2012)
While the concentration of aminoethanol is fixed during these experiments, reaction conditions such as temperature and time are varied to study their effects on the crystalline nature, crystallite size, morphology, and optical properties including UV emission, band gap, and photoluminescent characteristics of the so formed ZnO nanopowders
The structural characterization, optical band gap, and photoluminescent characteristics of ZnO nanopowders prepared in 2-aminoethanol under different reaction conditions are presented in this article
Summary
In the past few years, ZnO-based nanostructured materials have emerged as the first-choice materials for semiconductor devices such as sensors (Chougule et al 2012; Afzal et al 2012) and solar cells (Kim et al 2013; Patra et al 2014), and in other fields as UV emitters (Zhang et al 2013), optical waveguides (Jiang et al 2012), and biomedical (Yang et al 2012) and optoelectronic devices (Zhang et al 2012). The effect of temperature and time on crystal structure, size, morphology, and optical properties of ZnO nanopowders is studied. While the concentration of aminoethanol is fixed during these experiments, reaction conditions such as temperature and time are varied to study their effects on the crystalline nature, crystallite size, morphology, and optical properties including UV emission, band gap, and photoluminescent characteristics of the so formed ZnO nanopowders.
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