Size Distribution of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Depending on the Temperature of Electrochemical Synthesis.

Abstract

One of the methods for obtaining zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) is electrochemical synthesis. In this study, the anodic dissolution process of metallic zinc in alcohol solutions of LiCl was used to synthesize ZnO NPs. The products were obtained as colloidal suspensions in an electrolyte solution. Due to the small size and ionic nature of the zinc oxide molecule, colloidal nanoparticles tend to cluster into larger groupings, so the size of nanoparticles in solutions will differ from the size of nanoparticles observed in ZnO powders after solvent evaporation. The main goal of this research is to investigate the influence of the temperature of synthesis and the kind of alcohol on the size of ZnO NP micelles. Nanocrystals of zinc oxide were obtained in all tested alcohols: methanol, ethanol, and 1-propanol. The particle size was determined using the Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) method. It was observed that the particles synthesized in methanol were the largest, followed by smaller particles in ethanol, while the smallest particles were obtained in 1-propanol. Additionally, the particles obtained in ethanol were the most uniform in size, showing the highest level of size homogeneity.