Short time and low temperature mineralization of ZnO nanorod-bunches from solution using cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide

The low temperature mineralization of zinc oxide nanorod bunches from zinc precursor solution mixed with the cationic surfactant Cetyl Trimethyl Ammonium Bromide is reported. Five different combinations of zinc precursor and surfactant ratios are chosen and their properties are compared using the average particle size, lattice parameter ratio (c/a) of hexagonal ZnO from X-ray diffraction, the morphologies from SEM, TEM and their optical characteristics by using optical absorption spectroscopy spectrometry. A surfactant lowers the surface tension of the solution, and forms a thermodynamically ordered and a disordered phase wherein, ordered phase seeds the growth of the ZnO nanostructures. A peculiar circular structure called 'micelle' is formed by the surfactant. The heads, located on the peripheries of the micelle, are the ordered phase in the solution, and are the original nucleation sites of the Zinc Oxide nanostructures. This fashion of nucleation is the reason for the 'arms of the wheel-like' morphology consisting of nanorod bunches. Out of the five combinations experimented, the 3:1, 3:2, 1:1 ratios show nearness in the standard c/a value. The photoluminescence spectrum shows UV emission in the region of 380 nm and weak blue emission. The UV-VIS-NIR spectrum has exhibited a characteristic UV-absorption.