ZnO and Zn1−xCdxO nanocrystallites obtained by oxidation of precursor Langmuir–Blodgett multilayers

ZnO and Zn1−xCdxO nanocrystallites were prepared by oxidation of zinc arachidate–arachidic acid and zinc arachidate–cadmium arachidate–arachidic acid LB multilayers, respectively. The metal content of the multilayers was controlled by manipulation of subphase composition and pH. Precursor multilayers were oxidized in the temperature range of 400 °C–700 °C. The formation of ZnO and Zn1−xCdxO was confirmed by UV–Visible spectroscopy. Uniformly distributed, isolated and nearly mono-dispersed nanocrystallites of ZnO (11 ± 3 nm) and Zn1−xCdxO (18 ± 6 nm) were obtained.