Facial Synthesis of Nano Sized ZnO by Hydrothermal Method

Abstract

In this contribution we are presenting a simple precipitation hydrothermal method to synthesize zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles using zinc nitrate and starch solution. The obtained precipitated compound was calcined and structurally characterized by Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV-Vis spectroscopic techniques. The powder X-ray data indicates that the calcined compound exhibits hexagonal (Wurtzite) structure with space group of P63mc (No. 186). Scanning electron micrographs show uniform spherical like morphology of ZnO. The SEM results reveal that the particle sizes were in the order of 30–50 nm and the average particle size is around 35 nm. The FT-IR result shows the existence of OH-, NO2- , CO, CO2 groups in unclaimed sample. The band gap was higher for synthesized ZnO particles than their bulk counterparts. The results indicate that starch is an attractive material that can be used as precipitation agent for preparing ZnO.