ZnO NANOPARTICLES PREPARED IN THE PRESENCE OF ADDITIVES BY THERMAL DECOMPOSITION METHOD

Abstract

In this study, different additives such as cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), aluminum nitrate and tri-n-octylphosphine oxide (TOPO) are selected, respectively, to bind zinc acetate in order to investigate its role in the formation of ZnO nanoparticles. Accordingly, the morphology and size of produced ZnO nanoparticles are affected by existence of the additives through XRD analyses and TEM observations. The particle size was found to be 32, 14, 15, and 28 nm for pure zinc acetate, zinc acetate/TOPO, zinc acetate/CTAB, and zinc acetate/aluminum nitrate, respectively. It is observed that the TOPO and CTAB decrease the size of ZnO nanoparticles, while the doping of aluminum to the precursor has no effect on its particle size. The obtained ZnO nanoparticles exhibited the direct optical bandgap of about 3.40–3.45 eV and their photoluminescence spectrum has a UV emission peak at about 363 nm which is slightly blue-shifted due to the smaller particle size of the ZnO nanoparticles in the presence of TOPO and CTAB additives.