Plasma dynamic synthesis and obtaining ultradispersed zinc oxide with single-crystalline particle structure

•Synthesis of hexagonal zinc oxide is implemented in the discharge plasma jet.•Duration of synthesis process is less than 1 ms.•Final product consist of single-crystalline hexagonal ZnO particles.•Product has a wide distribution of particle sizes up to 350 nm.

Zinc oxide is well-known semiconductor material having good electrical, optical and catalytic properties. This paper shows the results on synthesis of hexagonal zinc oxide with single-crystalline particle structure using the system based on coaxial magnetoplasma accelerator. The synthesis is implemented during one short cycle (up to 10−3 s) of plasma accelerator work. X-ray diffractometry analysis allow us to confirm that the product consists of only hexagonal zinc oxide with lattice parameters a = b = 3.24970 Å, c = 5.20270 Å. This result is in a good agreement with EDAX data, which show the presence only Zn and O elements in the final product. SEM, TEM and HRTEM methods are used to investigate the particles morphology. It is found that the product consists of single-crystalline hexagonal particles of zinc oxide and electron diffraction from particles also confirmed the zinc oxide structure. The particle sizes are up to 350 nm but the most of the particles (85%) are less than 150 nm.

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