Fabrication of nanometer-sized zinc oxide at low decomposing temperature

Nanometer-sized ZnO powder was synthesized at low decomposing temperature by polyacrylamide-gel method. Acrylamide was used as monomer, and N,N′-methylenebisacrylamide was employed as lattice reagent. The characterization of powders was studied by differential thermal analysis–thermal gravimetric (DTA–TG), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The results indicated that the particle-diameter distribution of ZnO powder was from 5 nm to 15 nm, and the average particle size of the ZnO powder was about 8 nm. The specific surface area was about 158.5 m2 g−1. The content of ZnO was 99.0% (mass percent). Methylene blue can rapidly decompose in aqueous solution due to the photo catalysis of ZnO. After decomposing 3 h, the decomposing ratio of methylene blue was 80%.