Microwave irradiation assisted, one pot synthesis of simple and complex metal oxide nanoparticles: a general approach

Abstract

We demonstrate a standard approach for the growth of binary/ternary metal oxide nanostructures within 5 min at a low temperature (<100 °C) by using metal acetylacetonates as the starting precursor material and microwave as the source of energy in the presence/absence of a surfactant. Nanoparticles of some functionally advanced binary/ternary metal oxides (MnO2, Fe2O3, NiO, CdO, Ga2O3, Gd2O3, ZnFe2O4, ZnMn2O4) are synthesized and the structure/microstructure is analyzed to ensure the phase and crystallinity. This synthesis procedure can be extended to the large scale production of many other simple and complex metal oxides.