A novel chemical route to prepare ZnO nanoparticles

Nanocrystalline ZnO particles were prepared by a novel aqueous route from zinc nitrate hexahydrate without any requirement of calcinations step at high temperature. A comparative study of chemical reactions from zinc nitrate hexahydrate to ZnO was made under different temperature. The results reveal that with the increase of the reaction temperature, the morphology of particles seems to change from rod-like to short prism-like form. The photoluminescence band was at near 380 nm and no other bands were observable, which proved to exhibit high optical property and might have potential application in nanoscale optoelectronic devices.