Optical, electrical, and photocatalytic properties of polyethylene glycol-assisted sol–gel synthesized BaTiO3@ZnO core–shell nanoparticles

• BaTiO3@ZnO core–shell nanoparticles are prepared by PEG-assisted sol–gel method.
• Molecular weight of PEG influences d-spacing in ZnO of BaTiO3@ZnO and pristine ZnO.
• Optical properties of BaTiO3@ZnO are similar to those of pristine ZnO.
• Charge transfer resistance of BaTiO3@ZnO is larger than that of ZnO.
• BaTiO3@ZnO nanoparticles are better photocatalysts than ZnO nanoparticles.

BaTiO3@ZnO core–shell nanoparticles were synthesized by sol–gel method using polyethylene glycol (PEG) 4000 (4k) and 20,000 (20k). The powder X-ray diffractograms and energy dispersive X-ray spectra confirm the core–shell nature of the prepared nanoparticles. While the use of PEG 20k instead of PEG 4k increased the interplanner distances in ZnO of BaTiO3@ZnO core–shell nanoparticles it decreased the d-spacing in sol–gel synthesized pristine ZnO nanoparticles. The diffuse reflectance spectra of BaTiO3@ZnO core–shell nanoparticles are similar to those of ZnO nanoparticles. So are the photoluminescence (PL) spectra. The charge transfer resistances of BaTiO3@ZnO core–shell nanoparticles are larger than those of pristine ZnO nanoparticles. The PEG-assisted sol–gel prepared BaTiO3@ZnO core–shell nanoparticles are better photocatalysts than the PEG-assisted sol–gel synthesized pristine ZnO nanoparticles.

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