Microwave-assisted Decomposition of two Simple Zinc(II) Schiff Base Complexes: A Facile and Fast Route to Synthesize ZnO Nanostructures

Abstract

ZnO nanorods and nanoparticles have been easily prepared via the decomposition of two simple Schiff base zinc (II) complexes, namely (N,N'–disalicylalethylenediamine)zince(II) and (N,N'–disalicylalphenylenediamine)zince(II) under microwave irradiation. The decomposition products of the complexes were characterized by FT-IR, XRD, SEM, EDX and UV-visible spectroscopy. FT-IR, XRD and EDX results confirmed that as-prepared products are pure and single-phase ZnO. SEM images show that the product of each complex was made up of ZnO nanoparticles average diameter size of 50 nm and ZnO nanorods with diameter of 70–100 nm and length up to 3.5 μm .ZnO nanostructures prepared by present method could be appropriate photocatalytic materials due to a red shift in their band gaps (2.80 and 2.95 eV) compared with the bulk sample (3.37 eV). This method is simple, fast, safe, low-cost and also it is suitable for large-scale preparation of high purity ZnO nanostructures for applied purposes.