Effect of Oil Phase: Micelle Assisted Synthesis of Cadmium Oxide Nanoparticles

ABSTRACT Nanoparticles serve the need for advanced materials with specific chemical, physical, and electronic properties. These properties can manipulate the particle size. Consequently, size control has been recognized as a key factor in the selection of a nanoparticle preparation technique. Water-in-oil (W/O) microemulsion or reverse micelles has been successfully used to prepare a wide variety of nanoparticles with controlled sizes. Cadmium oxide nanoparticles with different morphology such as spherical and umbrella shaped nanoparticles could be successfully synthesized from cationic surfactant- (CTAB)/n-butyl alcohol/cyclohexane or isooctane/water as a reverse microemulsion system. Variations in organic solvents, that is, iso-octane and cyclo-hexane, played an important role in morphological control of cadmium oxide nanostructures. Iso-octane leads to bigger and polydispersed nanoparticles compared to cyclo-hexane as oil phase in microemulsion system. A rational mechanism of synthesis based on fusion,...