The Structural and Optical Properties of Zinc-Oxide Nanomaterials Synthesized via Thermal Decomposition Method

Abstract

The current study describes a novel, solvent-free, template solid-state synthesis of Zinc Oxide nanoparticles (NPs). The prepared sample was prepared by thermal decomposition route. The prepared sample was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Rietveld refinement, Field emissionscanningelectronmicroscopy (FESEM), Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and Ultra violet visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis). Singlephase crystalline structure of prepared NPs was confirmed using X-ray diffraction and the mean crystallite size of ZnO NPs was about 14nm. Rietveld refinement study,which yielded a good peak fitting between measured and calculated patterns. Chemical composition of the prepared sample was determined using EDX. The size and morphology were evaluated using FESEM which has almost spherical shapein the range of 6-35 nanometres. The optical properties of the as-prepared sample and their bandgap were determined using UV-Vis and it was calculated as 3.19 eV. These findings demonstrated that ethylene glycol (EG) inhibits nanoparticles for coagulate and results in the formation of homogeneous NPs with an optical bandgap of 3.19eV. This study represents an efficient thermal degradation synthesis process for the ZnO NPs with a broad range of potential applications.