Synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles in aqueous solution by hyperbranched polymer

●A facile method was developed to fabricate ZnO nanoparticles in aqueous medium.●Zinc nitrate and HBP-NH2 were the only reagents.●HBP-NH2 exhibits multiple roles as reactant, template and stabilizer.●The prepared ZnO nanoparticles have an average size at 5.9 nm.

This research describes a new strategy of fabricating ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) in aqueous solution via a one-step heating reaction. Zinc nitrate and amino terminated hyperbranched polymer (HBP-NH2) were employed as the precursors. The mechanism of this reaction process was discussed in detail. During the process, HBP-NH2 not only acted as the reagent to produce ZnO NPs but also played an important role to control the size of ZnO NPs and stabilize them after the reaction. It follows that the ZnO NPs have an average size at 5.9 nm and well dispersed in aqueous medium. In addition, the ZnO NPs are well crystalline. The fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) reveals the interaction between ZnO NPs and HBP-NH2. As the highly dispersed ZnO NPs with small size could be prepared in aqueous medium by this method, they may have significant implications for a wide range of applications such as biomedicine, catalysis and optoelectronics.

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