Estimation of Size and Lattice Strain of ZnO/Ag Nanowires Based on Williamson-Hall Analysis

Abstract

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is known as an important semiconductor which has been studied extensively in the past few years due to its fundamental and technological importance, Itsmany attractive properties, such as wide bandgap (3.37 eV), large exciton binding energy and excellent chemical stability, suggest a great many possible practical applications such as in gas sensors, ceramics, field-emission devices and luminescent materials and therapeutic , size and crystal morphology play important roles in these applications, which have driven researchers to focus on the synthesis of nanocrystalline ZnO. This work is aimed to the development and characterization of zinc oxyde nanowires for therapeutic applications. ZnO nanowires are elaborated by hydrothermal method using a novel synthesized protocol. The elaboration hydrothermal conditions were optimized in order to have the longest nanowires with the lowest diameter. The structural, morphological and elementary analysis of the growth NWs was carried out by X-ray Diffraction (DRX), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The XRD results revealed that the sample product was crystalline with a hexagonal wurtzite phase. transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed single-crystal ZnO NPs with nearly wires shapes. The crystalline development in the ZnO-Nws was investigated by X-ray peak broadening. The Williamsone Hall (W_H) analysis and sizee strain plot method were used to study the individual contributions of crystallite sizes and lattice strain on the peak broadening of the ZnO-Nws.