Growth and properties of ZnO nanoblade and nanoflower prepared by ultrasonic pyrolysis

• Published in: Journal of applied physics Vol. 97; no. 4; pp. 044305 - 044305-6
• Main Authors: Suh, Hyo-Won, Kim, Gil-Young, Jung, Yeon-Sik, Choi, Won-Kook, Byun, Dongjin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Institute of Physics 15.02.2005
• ISSN: 0021-8979; 1089-7550
• DOI: 10.1063/1.1849825

ZnO nanoblades and nanoflowers are synthesized using zinc acetate dihydrate Zn ( C H 3 C O O ) 2 ∙ 2 H 2 O dissolved in distilled water by ultrasonic pyrolysis at 380 - 500 ° C . Thermogravimetry-differential scanning calorimetry, x-ray diffraction, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and low-temperature photoluminescence (PL) were used to characterize the thermal properties, crystalline and optical features of the ZnO nanostructures. The results showed that at 400 ° C the formation of nanoblades resulted from the simultaneous precipitation and nucleation in zinc acetate precursor. At an elevated temperature of 450 ° C , decomposition was almost advanced and thus the size of nanopetal became smaller and aggregates became larger by as much as 60 nm . The formation of aggregates is explained in terms of random nucleation model. Through PL measurement, nanoblade showed a strong near band-edge emission with negligible deep-level emission and free exciton band-gap energy E g ( 0 ) = 3.372 eV and Debye temperature β = 477 ± 65 K by the fitting curve of free exciton peak as a function of temperature to Varshni equation, E g ( T ) = E g ( 0 ) − α T 2 ∕ ( β + T ) , which are very close to bulk ZnO.