Hydrothermal synthesis of hexagonal ZnO clusters

Hydrothermal process was applied to synthesize zinc oxide nanocrystals. X-ray powder diffraction and scanning electron microscopy were used to analyze the crystal structure and surface morphology. XRD pattern analysis showed that the ZnO clusters are single hexagonal phase of wurtzite structure (space group P63 mc) with no impurity of Zn and Zn(OH)2. Also, SEM images revealed that the size of a single ZnO crystal is between 200–500 nm in diameter and 2–5 μm in length. The influence of potassium iodide (KI) as a surfactant on the crystallinity of ZnO has been investigated.