Incorporation of zinc oxide and cobalt doped zinc oxide nano-rods in commercial sunscreen sample to optimize its UV-ray absorption

Abstract

In the last two decades, the ozone layer in the atmosphere has been depleted, and the sun rays are now more harmful to human skin because they no longer filters it completely. Long-term exposure to harmful ultraviolet rays (UV-rays), which have wavelengths between 220 nm and 380 nm, causes catastrophic damage to skin cells. Sunscreens are therefore absolutely necessary to protect the skin. The co-precipitation method was used to synthesize both pure and cobalt-doped zinc oxide nano structures. In sunscreens, these nanostructures serve as a UV filter. The obtained nano structures have been characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The ability of a sunscreen sample containing nano structures to yield results for a period of various hours at different temperatures (20 °C, 30 °C, and 50 °C) has been tested. According to XRD results, prepared samples exhibits hexagonal wurtzite crystalline structures and are of 22 nm in size for pure zinc oxide and 20 nm in size for cobalt- doped zinc oxide. SEM was used to find morphologies, i.e., nano rods (NRs) at 200 nm and 2 μm. DRS provided evidence of sunscreen’s endurance, with a 97% absorption of UV-rays at 50 °C for up to 6 h when incorporated with NRs. In order to boost UV-ray absorption in sunscreen, nanotechnology has been successfully applied.