Optical and surface properties of zinc oxide nanoparticles dried by conventional and supercritical ethanol drying techniques

Abstract

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were synthesized by conventional (ZnO-A) and supercritical ethanol drying (ZnO-B). Nitrogen adsorption/desorption analyses were performed to determine the surface areas of the powders. The specific surface area was 28.30m2/g and 10.61 m2/g for ZnO-A and ZnO-B respectively. The powders adsorbed very small amount of CO2with the conventionally dried powder adsorbing more CO2. Supercritical ethanol dried ZnO had ethanol on its surface which was eliminated by vacuum application at room temperature. Both powders had OH groups which were eliminated on heating up to 500°C under vacuum. However, OH groups were present in lower amounts in supercritical ethanol dried ZnO. The powders were characterized by UV-VIS optical absorption and room temperature photoluminescence spectroscopic analyses. The UV-VIS absorption spectrum showed an absorption band at 375nm due to ZnO nanoparticles. The photoluminescence spectrum of ZnO excited at 380nm exhibited three emission peaks: one at 424nm and 490nm corresponding to band gap excitonic emission and another located at 520nm due to the presence of singly ionized oxygen vacancies.