Effect of stabilizer content in different solvents on the synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles using the chemical precipitation method

M Ummay Sumaya; Kazi Hanium Maria; F T Z Toma; M A Zubair; M T Chowdhury

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20871

Effect of stabilizer content in different solvents on the synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles using the chemical precipitation method

Heliyon. 2023 Oct 10;9(10):e20871. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20871. eCollection 2023 Oct.

Authors

M Ummay Sumaya¹, Kazi Hanium Maria¹, F T Z Toma², M A Zubair³, M T Chowdhury⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
² Experimental Physics Division, Atomic Energy Centre, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh.
³ Department of Nanomaterials and Ceramic Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh.
⁴ Institute of Energy Science, Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, P.O Box 3787, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh.

Abstract

Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs) have been synthesized by a simple chemical precipitation method. The effect of monoethanolamine (MEA) content in different solvents on ZnO NPs synthesis and their structural properties has been investigated. The NPs synthesized by using isopropanol (IPA) with 15 ml MEA as a stabilizer under the most favorable conditions (deposition time, t_d = 120 min, temperature = 60 °C) showed good structural properties. Synthesized NPs exhibited beneficial structural properties after annealing. The hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure of ZnO NPs was verified by XRD. Different models were used to calculate structural parameters such as crystallite size, strain, stress, and energy density for all the reflection peaks of XRD corresponding to ZnO lying in the range 2θ = 15⁰-80⁰. The crystallite size of the ZnO nanoparticles was found to be 50-60 nm. FTIR and EDX confirmed the presence of ZnO NPs in the samples. SEM micrograph of all the samples revealed that the grain sizes decrease gradually with the increase of the amount of MEA. UV-Visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy results provide evidence that the ZnO NPs possess broader absorption bands, together with high band gap energy. The ZnO NPs synthesized with IPA solvent have the highest transmittance and band gap energy of 3.3eV. According to DLS data, various content of MEA stabilizer in solvent affects the hydrodynamic size of ZnO NPs.

Keywords: Chemical precipitation method; Crystallite size; Optical properties; Stabilizer; ZnO NPs.