Soft templated zinc oxide nanostructures and their colloidal assemblies for optical, capacitive and ionic impurity capturing applications

Abstract

A co-operative non-aqueous self-assembly route has been demonstrated to prepare zinc glycolate complexes those are further used to engineer zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs spherical, ≈ 60–80 nm). Lyotropic nanocolloids are prepared via dispersing the different amount of ZnO nanoparticles (0.05, 0.1 and 0.5 wt%) in non-aqueous lyotropic phases. Hexagonal to lamellar phase transition has been observed in the lyotropic nanocolloids with the addition of ZnO NPs as confirmed from the structural characterizations. Optical properties like refractive indices and birefringence of LLC is strongly modified with ZnO NPs doping. The stronger dipole moment of the NPs shifted the optical band gap of nanocolloids from semiconducting to insulating region and also influenced the net dielectric permittivity of the nanocolloids. The conductivity of the nanocolloids is measured and correlated with the optical band gap and dielectric dynamics. In addition, nanocolloids show ionic charge capturing properties.