Surfactant-assisted synthesis of monodispersed ZnO nanorods at low temperature

•Low-dimensional nano-ZnO was synthesized in an aqueous solution without calcination.•The monodispersed ZnO nanorods can be obtained in the presence of surfactant.•The concentration of surfactant has an effect on the aspect ratio of ZnO nanorods.

Monodispersed ZnO nanorods were successfully synthesized by a surfactant assisted aqueous solution method at low temperature. The x-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicated that the synthesized ZnO powders without high-temperature calcination had a pure hexagonal wurtzite structure. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation revealed that the monodispered ZnO nanorods with aspect ratio of about 9–12 were easily obtained in the presence of hydrazine hydrate and sodium oleate. The surfactant plays an important role in preventing the ZnO nanostructures from aggregating.

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