Synthesis of ZnO and Zn nanoparticles in microwave plasma and their deposition on glass slides

Alexander Irzh; Isaschar Genish; Lior Klein; Leonid A Solovyov; Aharon Gedanken

doi:10.1021/la904499s

Synthesis of ZnO and Zn nanoparticles in microwave plasma and their deposition on glass slides

Langmuir. 2010 Apr 20;26(8):5976-84. doi: 10.1021/la904499s.

Authors

Alexander Irzh¹, Isaschar Genish, Lior Klein, Leonid A Solovyov, Aharon Gedanken

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemistry and the Kanbar Laboratory for Nanomaterials at the Bar-Ilan University Center for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel.

PMID: 20337410
DOI: 10.1021/la904499s

Abstract

This work represents a new method to synthesis of ZnO and/or Zn nanoparticles by means of microwave plasma whose electrons are the reducing agents. Glass quadratic slides sized 2.5 x 2.5 cm were coated by ZnO and/or Zn particles whose sizes ranged from a few micrometers to approximately 20 nm. The size of the particles can be controlled by the type of the precursor and its concentration. In the current paper, the mechanism of the reactions of ZnO and/or Zn formation was proposed. Longer plasma irradiation and lower precursor concentration favor the fabrication of metallic Zn nanoparticles. The nature of the precursor's ion (acetate, nitrate, or chloride) is also of importance in determining the composition of the product. The glass slides coated by ZnO and/or Zn nanoparticles were characterized by HR-SEM, HR-TEM, AFM, XRD, ESR, contact angle and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS).