Study of effect of planetary ball milling on ZnO nanopowder synthesized by co-precipitation

Nanocrystalline ZnO powders have been synthesized by co-precipitation method and investigated planetary ball milling effects on structural and optical properties. These powders were characterized using X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electronic microscope, Infrared spectrophotometer, UV-vis spectrophotometer and Photoluminescence. It was found that prepared ZnO powders have hexagonal close packed structure which was annealed at 500 °C for 30 min. The bandgap energy of ZnO powders varied from 3.13 to 2.85 eV. The room temperature PL spectra exhibits low intensity UV emission peak at 383 nm and green emission band around 520 nm shows shifting towards higher wavelength with decrease in intensity of peak with time of planetary ball milling. Hence, it was observed that planetary ball milling can be used to tailor the optoelectronic properties of ZnO nanostructures.