Zinc oxide nanoparticles synthesis by electrochemical method: Optimization of parameters for maximization of productivity and characterization

• Preparation of zinc oxide nanoparticles by electrochemical method.
• Zinc electrode used as cathode and anode and oxalic acid as an electrolyte.
• Study of the effect of pH, electrolyte concentration, conductivity and operating voltage.
• Optimization of productivity by Taguchi methodology.
• Nanoparticles characterized by XRD, SEM, UV-DRS techniques.

In this study, zinc oxide nanoparticles were synthesized using electrochemical method. Zinc was used as electrode whereas oxalic acid in aqueous solution was used as an electrolyte. A L9 (34) Taguchi optimization methodology was used to find out the individual and interactive effect of all four independent experimental parameters namely pH (pHo): 5–8, oxalic acid concentration (m): 0.05–0.15 M, conductivity (k): 20–30 (mS/cm) and operating voltage (Vo): 5–8 V. These experimental parameters were optimized so as to maximize the productivity (g) and correspondingly find out specific energy consumption (kW h/kg) and specific electrode consumption (kg/kg). At the optimum condition of pHo = 5, m = 0.05 M, k = 30 (mS/cm) and Vo = 8 V, values of productivity, SENC and SELC were found to be 1.03 g, 3.79 kW h/kg and 1.76 kg/kg, respectively. Nanoparticles synthesized at optimum conditions have been further characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and UV–Visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy techniques so as to confirm its ZnO nature.

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