Surfactant controlled low-temperature thermal decomposition route to zinc oxide nanorods from zinc(II) acetylacetonate monohydrate

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods were synthesized via a low-temperature thermal decomposition of zinc(II) acetylacetonate monohydrate, [Zn(C5H7O2)2].H2O. A relatively inexpensive surfactant, octadecylamine (C18H37NH2) served both as a reaction solvent and a capping agent during the synthesis of ZnO nanorods. The synthesized nanorods were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), FT-IR, UV-visible, and photoluminescence (PL) studies. The XRD spectrum furnished evidence for the hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO. TEM images revealed the material to be rod shaped having diameter 30 nm and length 200 nm. The HRTEM image showed that the lattice fringes between the two adjacent planes are 0.244 nm apart, which corresponds to the interplanar separation of the (1 0 1) plane of hexagonal ZnO. The electron diffraction (ED) pattern confirmed the single crystalline nature of the nanorods. The PL spectrum showed two UV emissions at 356 nm (~3.48 eV) and 382 nm (~3.25 eV). ZnO nanorods also showed very weak blue bands at 445, 453 and 470 nm.