Synthesis, optimization and characterization of zinc oxide nanoparticles prepared by sol–gel technique

Abstract

The study conducted endeavors on the synthesis of Zinc Oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) using the sol–gel method at discrete calcination temperatures (500 °C, 700 °C, 900 °C). ZnO NPs were prepared using Zinc Acetate Dihydrate as a precursor, triethanolamine (TEA) as surfactant and ethanol as a solvent in the medium of Ammonium hydroxide and distilled water. The ZnO NPs thus obtained were characterized for structural and surface morphology analysis using X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), respectively. XRD shows nothing but the characteristic peaks related to the ZnO phase, thus confirms the presence and purity of ZnO NPs. Also, the crystal size of NPs was derived using full-width half maxima (FWHM) of the highest peak of XRD spectra using Debye-Scherrer formula. SEM surface analysis reveals that the synthesized ZnO NPs are near-spherical in structure and homogeneous in nature with typical size ranging between 500 and 700 nm.