Facile Zinc Oxide Nanoparticle Green Synthesis Using Citrus reticulata Extract for Use in Optoelectronic Sensors

Abstract

Waveguides are structures that can be used as sensors. After adding a cladding of a proper material, waveguides can be used for detecting specific chemical species. In particular, high band gap oxide semiconductors can be used as cladding for optical waveguides. In these materials, the synthesis processes are expensive or contaminant generators, for this reason novel approaches are required. This work addresses a simple synthesis method for the preparation of zinc oxide nanoparticles using Citrus reticulata extract. XRD presented only the wurtzite structure for the zinc oxide nanoparticles, while TEM showed size and shape homogeneity. The ZnO band gap was lower than commercial ZnO. Using a computer simulation and frequency dependent electrical characteristics, a waveguide model was tested. The resulting characteristics presented great parameters for using in optoelectronic sensors. Resulting ZnO NPs have negligible amounts of green matter afterwards, making this a non-toxic method. As a result, herein presented synthesis is a promising method for developing new optoelectronic sensors. These devices can be used for automatic detection of chemical species by automated systems.