Morphology dependent thermal conductivity of ZnO nanostructures prepared via a green approach

Abstract

In this study, a green synthesis route for the preparation of ZnO nanostructures with different morphologies was demonstrated. The morphological, structural, elemental composition and thermal properties of the synthesized ZnO nanostructures are characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and thermal conductivity. The prepared ZnO nanostructures are well crystalline nature with a wurtzite structure. The FE-SEM results demonstrated that the ZnO nanostructures with different morphologies such as clusters of coral particles, flower-like particles, ovoid-like particles and spherical particles were obtained via changing the experimental conditions. The flower-like ZnO nanostructures revealed a better thermal conductivity of about 0.34 to 0.22 Wm−1K−1 measured in the temperature range of 298–673 K by coupling of thermal diffusivity and heat capacity.