Title: Synthesis and characterisation of ZnO structures containing the nanoscale regime

Authors: M. Al-Assiri, H. Al-Gharni, A. Alolah, A. Al-Hajry, Ahmad Umar, M. Vaseem, Y-B. Hahn, Farid El-Tantawy, M. Bououdina, S. Al-Heniti

Addresses: Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, P.O. Box 9003, Abha, Saudi Arabia. ' Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, P.O. Box 9003, Abha, Saudi Arabia. ' Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, P.O. Box 9003, Abha, Saudi Arabia. ' Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Najran University, P.O. Box 1988, Najran, Saudi Arabia. ' School of Semiconductor and Chemical Engineering and BK21 Centre for Future Energy Materials and Devices, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, South Korea. ' School of Semiconductor and Chemical Engineering and BK21 Centre for Future Energy Materials and Devices, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, South Korea. ' School of Semiconductor and Chemical Engineering and BK21 Centre for Future Energy Materials and Devices, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, South Korea. ' Department of Physics, Faculty of Education for Girls, King Khalid University, Belgharn, Saudi Arabia. ' Department of Physics, College of Science, University of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bahrain. ' Physics Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: Synthesis of ZnO nanorods assembled in flower-shaped spherical morphologies have been grown via solution process by using zinc nitrate hexahydrate (Zn(NO₃)₂. 6H₂O) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at low-temperature of 100°C in eight hours. The grown ZnO structures were characterised in terms of their structural and optical properties. The detailed structural characterisations demonstrated that the synthesised products are single crystalline with the wurtzite hexagonal phase and grown along the [0001], c-axis direction. A strong absorption band at 480 cm⁻¹ was observed in Fourier transform infra red (FTIR) spectrum which was related with the ZnO. The optical property of the grown ZnO structures was observed by using UV-visible studies. Only a sharp peak at 371 nm was observed in the UV-vis. spectrum which is a characteristic band for the wurtzite hexagonal pure ZnO. Moreover, systematic time-dependent reactions were also performed to know the detailed growth process for the synthesised ZnO nanostructures.

Keywords: ZnO nanorods; zinc oxide; high-resolution transmission electron microscopy; HRTEM; UV-visible spectroscopy; Fourier transform infra red; FTIR; optical properties; nanomaterials; nanotechnology; synthesised ZnO; ZnO nanostructures.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNBM.2009.027720

International Journal of Nano and Biomaterials, 2009 Vol.2 No.1/2/3/4/5, pp.255 - 262

Published online: 08 Aug 2009 *

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