Synthesis and characterization of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures

Abstract

In the present study, we have synthesised Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructure using thermal hydrolysis method with the aid of two different polymers i.e. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and Polyvinyl butyral (PVB) as sacrificial layer for the growth of ZnO nanostructure and their comparative study of their induced effects has been done. The structural characterization of the prepared samples has been done using X-Ray Diffraction technique (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and UV-Visible absorption Spectroscopy (UV-Vis). The SEM analysis clearly suggests the change in morphology of the prepared ZnO nanostructure particles synthesised via PVA as sacrificial polymer to that synthesised using PVB. Use of PVA leads to formation of some nano-rods like arrangements along with some small nanoparticles of hexagonal shape while PVB leads to small elongation of the edges of the hexagonal nanoparticles which are the indication of formation of tetra pods kind of nanostructures. Such change in morphology of the prepared nanostructures via use of PVB may cause the observed change in observed optical band gap of these nanostructures. The chemical composition of these samples has been determined using Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX).