Characterization of zinc oxide nanoparticles synthesized by polymer assisted deposition method

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZNPs) are synthesized onto glass substrates by employing simple and low cost solution based modified polymer assisted deposition (PAD) method. Trionx100 is used as a capping agent and zinc acetate as the zinc source. TritonX100 concentration is varied from 0.02 to 0.45 M for the synthesis of pure ZnO NPs. TG–DTA analysis was employed to determine the decomposition temperature of TritonX100 and zinc acetate, which lead to the formation of ZnO. The films were further characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM), Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and room temperature photoluminescence (PL). The results indicate that the synthesized nanoparticles (NPs) exhibits the room temperature PL with two emission peaks, one corresponding to ZnO band edge emission and the other one to point defect states created due to oxygen deficiency. The first peak undergoes blue-shift due to change in NPs size while there is no shift in the second peak. Nevertheless, with increase in TritonX100 concentration the peak intensity of defect peak decreases, indicating that the highly pure NPs have been successfully synthesized by PAD method.

Research highlights▶ Synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles by simple and facile polymer assisted deposition method. ▶ TritonX100 used as a capping agent to control the size of nanoparticles. ▶ The quantum size effect is observed in the nanoparticles.