A benign hydrothermal synthesis of nanopencils-like zinc oxide nanoflowers

S A Akhoon,M A Shah,S Rubab

doi:10.1007/s40089-014-0130-7

Abstract

Synthesis of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoflowers and nanopencils is normally carried out with the help of structure-directing chemicals and templates. Besides releasing environmentally toxic substances, the use of these chemicals restricts the practical applications of nanostructures. In this paper, we report a typical template-free and environmentally benign synthesis of ZnO nanoflowers with nanopencils-like petals through a facile hydrothermal method. The as-synthesized ZnO nanoflowers were characterized using X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, tunneling electron microscopy (TEM), high resolution TEM, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy techniques. The results reveal high quality and impurity-free hexagonal wurtzite phase ZnO nanoflowers of nanopencils-like petals having a length of 100–150 nm and a diameter of 45–60 nm.

Highlights

Nanocrystalline metal oxides play a very important role in material science due to their tunable morphology and wide applications in optoelectronics, energy conversions, zinc oxide (ZnO) nanopencils and nanoflowers through chemical route of hydrothermal synthesis have been reported by many researchers in the past [5, 9,10,11,12,13]
We were prompted to look into more conditions so as to synthesize more novel structures and as such, in this paper we report the synthesis of ZnO nanoflower, consisting of nanopencils-like petals through an environmentally benign hydrothermal method
The X-ray diffraction (XRD) data analysis clearly reveals the crystalline nature of ZnO nanopencils and closely matches with the standard diffraction pattern of ZnO and International Centre for Diffraction Data, Joint Committee on Powder Diffraction Standards (JCPDS) 36-1451

Summary

Introduction

Nanocrystalline metal oxides play a very important role in material science due to their tunable morphology and wide applications in optoelectronics, energy conversions, ZnO nanopencils and nanoflowers through chemical route of hydrothermal synthesis have been reported by many researchers in the past [5, 9,10,11,12,13]. Abstract Synthesis of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoflowers and nanopencils is normally carried out with the help of structure-directing chemicals and templates. We report a typical template-free and environmentally benign synthesis of ZnO nanoflowers with nanopencils-like petals through a facile hydrothermal method.

Results

Conclusion