Morphology investigation of hydrothermally prepared ZnO micro-crystals influenced by Cu 2+ ions

• Published in: Materials research bulletin Vol. 45; no. 4; pp. 486 - 490
• Main Authors: Jin, Dalai, Yue, Linhai, Zheng, Yifan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 2010
• Subjects: B. Crystal growth; C. Electron microscopy; C. X-ray diffraction; Cu 2+ ion; D. Luminescence; B. Crystal growth; Cu 2+ ion; C. X-ray diffraction; C. Electron microscopy; D. Luminescence
• ISSN: 0025-5408; 1873-4227
• DOI: 10.1016/j.materresbull.2009.11.002

Micrometer-sized ZnO with various shapes have been synthesized by a hydrothermal route with Zn(Ac) 2/NH 3·H 2O in the presence of copper ions. Powder X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy were utilized to characterize the composition and structure of the samples, respectively. As-synthesized, the ultrasonic pretreatment, pH value, reaction time and hydrothermal temperature played important roles in crystal structure tailoring. Novel nut-like ZnO crystal with improved crystal quality was obtained with initial Zn 2+/Cu 2+ ratio of 10, at reaction temperature of 100 °C, with initial pH of 7.0 and in a reaction time of 4 h, with ultrasonic pretreatment. Time-dependent experiments show that transfer of the Cu ions plays a crucial role as it causes the difference in crystal growth velocity.