Study the optical and morphology properties

of zinc oxide nanoparticles

Cite as: AIP Conference Proceedings 2213, 020061 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0000259
Published Online: 25 March 2020

Zahraa M. AL-Asady, Ali H. AL-Hamdani, and Mohammed A. Hussein

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AIP Conference Proceedings 2213, 020007 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0000324

AIP Conference Proceedings 2213, 020061 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0000259 2213, 020061

© 2020 Author(s).
 Study the Optical and Morphology Properties of Zinc Oxide
Nanoparticles
Zahraa M. AL-Asady1), Ali H. AL-Hamdani1,a) and Mohammed A. Hussein2)
1
Department of Laser and Optoelectronic Engineering, University of Technology-Baghdad, Iraq
2
Department of Electronics engineering, University of Technology-Baghdad, Iraq

Correspondence: a)[email protected]

Abstract. In this research, the zinc oxide nanoparticles powder (ZnO-NPs) was dissolved in ethanol by using a magnetic
stirrer device .The ZnO -nanoparticles properties were studied by several techniques, such as X-ray analysis, X-ray
fluorescence, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy,
scanning electron microscopy and UV-vis optical absorption . XRD patterns show that hexagonal cell for ZnO-NPs. XRF
analysis showed a high purity for ZnO-NPs. AFM, TEM and SEM images appear the particle size and the morphology for
ZnO-NPs. The spectrum UV-vis shows that optical band absorption located in 377nm for ZnO-NPs. Zinc oxide can be
considered an important element because of its use in many fields such as medical application, electronic industry, sun
screening agent, cosmetics, UV protection, electrodes for solar cells and piezoelectric.

INTRODUCTION
Over the past few years, nanomaterial has been at the forefront of due to its applications in different fields such as
medicine, energy, environment and communications. This broad interest in nanomaterial back to the end of the 20th
century. The ZnO-NPs are one of those materials that have widely used in the medical field [1]. Due to the
importance of optical and electrical properties of nanosized semiconductors, at present there are many requests for
their development, there are different type for semiconducting materials [2]. The ZnO is one of the groups of II–VI
semiconductors .ZnO is a good material for optoelectronic devices of low wavelength, such as light emitting diodes
(LED) and UV laser diode. ZnO has been widely used recently because it possesses direct energy band gap (3.37 eV)
which makes it an effective for UV absorber and has a large binding energy (60 eV) [3].In ZnO, excessive transitions
occurs even at room temperature because the large binding energy, which could mean high radiative recombination
efficiency for spontaneous emission and a lower threshold voltage for laser emission [4]. ZnO-NPs considered as
excellent candidate of different applications, like photo-catalysts, photo-detector, nano-generators, gas and bio
sensors, varistors and solar cells [5-11].Through the historical survey, we found many ways to prepare ZnO
nanoparticles, such as chemical vapor deposition , electro-deposition, sol-gel, micro emulsion, thermal
decomposition of organic precursor, spray pyrolysis, , ultrasonic, microwave-assisted techniques, , and hydrothermal
and precipitation methods [12-19].In this research, we report the characterization and the morphology for ZnO-NPs
by using several tests, including: X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), scanning electron
microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), fourier transform
infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV-Vis absorbance.

EXPERIMENTAL WORK
Zinc oxide (ZnO) is nano-white powder purchased from US Research Nano-materials, with molecular weight
(81.83 g/mol), purity (98%) and ethanol (C2H5OH) is colorless liquid supplied by GCC, with molecular wright
(46.07 g/mole) and purity (99.9 %). Zinc oxide and ethanol were purchased. In this experiment, a certain weight of
zinc oxide powder was measured by electric balance having a sensitivity of 10-4 g then melted with (10 ml) of

2nd International Conference on Materials Engineering & Science (IConMEAS 2019)

AIP Conf. Proc. 2213, 020061-1–020061-7; https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0000259
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1964-3/$30.00

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ethanol. The mixture was placed under continuous stirring by a magnetic stirrer device to totally dissolve the zinc
oxide nanoparticles for 1 hour at 78° C .The dissolved ZnO nanoparticles were subjected for many tests to known
their optical properties and nanostructure. The X-ray diffraction test for ZnO nanoparticle is done by using an X-ray
device (PHILIPS, PW 1730) with scan range 2θ = 10 – 80 ◦. X-ray fluorescence test (PHILIPS, PW 1410) .Scanning
electron microscopy (TESCAN, MIRA III), transmission electron microscopy (PHILIPS, CM 120) and atomic force
microscopy (CSPM) were used to study the morphology for ZnO-NPs. The absorption spectrum of ZnO dissolved in
ethanol was done by using a UV-vis spectrophotometer (Thermo, biomate 5) over the range of (190 -1100) nm. The
Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis was done by (Thermo, Nicolet 380).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Structural Properties
X-Ray Diffraction (XRD)

The crystalline structure for the ZnO film that has been prepared to examine X-ray pattern is shown in figure 1.
Results appeared that thin film for ZnO-NPs prepared with 0.2 M are polycrystalline and the highest intensity
appears in the direction (101). From figure 1 observed the peaks of XRD specific by a broad line, this means that
ZnO film contain particles in nano-scale. From X-ray patterns, can calculate data, such (full-width at half-maximum
FWHM, position, peak intensity, width,). From figure 1 noticed that the peaks diffraction were located in (31.88°,
34.57°, 36.39°, 47.69°, 56.71°, 62.99°, 66.48°, 68.04°, 96.19°, 72.67° and 77.03°). All peaks detected has been a
hexagonal structure for ZnO [20, 21].
The distance between the crystalline planes (dhkl), were calculated by the Bragg law [22]:
n λ = 2d sin θ (1)
Where: n is the diffraction order, λ is the incident wavelength for wave, d is the lattice spacing between planes
and θ is scattering angle .
The Debye- Scherrer equation use to calculate the nanoparticle diameter [23]:
Debye- Scherrer (d) = k λ / β cos θ (2)
Where: d is the crystalline-size in nanometres ,k is Scherrer's constant equal (0.9), λ is the X-Rays wavelength, θ
is peak position and β is the full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the diffraction peak corresponding to plane
(101).

FIGURE 1. The XRD patterns for the ZnO- nanoparticles.

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 X- Ray Fluorescence (XRF)

It is widely used for chemical and elemental analysis. The table 1 shows the percentage of metals present in
the composition of ZnO nanoparticles. From results show that zinc oxide has a purity of 98%.
TABLE 1. Chemical analysis for ZnO- NPs
Sample LOI ZnO%
SiO2% Al2O3% Fe2O3% CaO% Na2O% MgO% K2O% TiO2% MnO% P2O5%
%
ZnO N N 0.094 0.007 N N N 0.011 0.023 0.011 0.65 98

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)

The FTIR Spectra for pure ZnO-nanoparticles in range of 4000 – 400 cm−1 are shown in figure 2. The ZnO-NPs
were subjected to FTIR analysis to identify the biomolecules involved in stabilizing the nanoparticles in solution. The
strongest absorption bands were observed at 538 and 497 cm-1, which resulting from a covalent bond between zinc
metal and oxygen atom (Zn-O) [24]. A broad band was noticed at 3435 cm−1, it is related to Hydrogen bond (H2O)
due to air humidity. While remainder small bands of absorption located at 1383, 1095 and 820 cm-1, these bands
result from H2O (O-H) and CO2 (C-O) absorbed from the air, so can be ignored. Results FTIR indicate that zinc oxide
nanoparticles were very pure.

FIGURE 2. FTIR spectra for ZnO nanoparticles.

MORPHOLOGY

Atomic Force Microscope (AFM)

AFM analysis was used to study the topography surface and the crystalline structure of the thin film. AFM
images illustrates the roughness and morphology of the surface for the zinc oxide thin film. Figure 3 (a &b) represent
the two dimension and three dimension AFM images for pure ZnO thin films surface , figure 3c shows the
granularity distribution chart. Figure 3(a) shows the topographic image of the surface roughness with 2D, where
surface roughness of pure ZnO thin film was 1.12 nm, this means the distribution was uniformly and homogeneity
was good within the scanning area. The mean square root value was 1.29 nm, this indicates the softness of the
surface. The average distance interfaces between crystalline peaks and other was 4.46 nm, this indicates the
uniformity of the film and the possibility of used in solar cells because of its excellent reflection. Figure3 (b) shows

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3D image of the film, where observed regularity in the composition of film and the grains have a vertical structure on
the crystal axis and approximately equal. Figure 3(c) shows the analysis of the microscope AFM, which shows the
graph of the distribution of granular aggregates on the surface of film, where the average diameter of pure ZnO-NPS
was 88.17 nm.

b
FIGURE 3. AFM images of ZnO film surface (a) 2D view (b) 3D view (c) the granularity distribution chart.

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 Transmission Electron Microscopy / Scanning Electron Microscopy

FIGURE 4. TEM and SEM images for ZnO nanoparticles in (A) and (B).

The TEM which used to take an image to the zinc oxide nanoparticles and used for measuring the nanoparticles
size of ZnO films .Figure 4(A& B) shows the TEM and SEM for ZnO-NPs. The microscopic picture for TEM test
shown in figure (4A), it is revealed that hexagonal shape for zinc oxide nano-particles, this test appear that ZnO
nanoparticles used for this study are good quality product .Figure (4B) explains the micrograph for SEM test in scale
bar 200 nm for ZnO-NPs. The SEM picture shows that the shape is homogeneous for ZnO-NPs. This image
substantiate an approximate spherical shape to the ZnO nanoparticles. From figure 4B shows average particle sizes
for ZnO nanoparticle is about 44.63 nm.

Optical Properties:
UV-visible Spectroscopy

The spectroscopy device is used to find out the optical properties for nano-sized particles.A nanoparticles size
considered as significant factor in changing the entire properties for materials .The nanoparticles ZnO were

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dissolved with the ethanol, then solution was used in Uv-visible test. Absorption spectra of pure zinc oxide NPs are
shown in figure 5.This spectrum indicate that absorption peak is strong in the wavelength (377) nm, due to the
band-gap absorption for zinc oxide result from removed electrons from the valence band to the conduction band
[24]. Further, because ZnO particles are in nano-size and the particle size distribution is narrow, this leads to appear
a sharp absorption peak .zinc oxide nanoparticles have the good absorption in UV region (200-400) nm, which
makes convenient to medical applications like sunscreen protectors or antiseptic ointments [25].

The absorption coefficient (α0) was obtained directly by using the following equation [26]:
α0 = 2.303 A / d (3)
Where A: is the absorption peak and d is the cavity width.

FIGURE 5. The Absorption spectrum for ZnO nanoparticles.

CONCLUSION
In summary, thin ZnO-NPs films with high UV light-shielding efficiency were reported in this research. The
results for XRD was shown the ZnO nanoparticles were created in a hexagonal structure and polycrystalline. From
SEM test was observed average particle size (44.63 nm) indicating that ZnO was nanomaterial, and ZnO nano-
powder was very homogeneous. TEM test was shown the ZnO-nanoparticles have hexagonal shape. Surface
roughness of pure ZnO thin film was 1.12 nm, this means distribution uniformly and homogeneity in the scanning
area and the average diameter was 88.17 nm as shown AFM. The Uv-Vis absorption spectroscopy indicated a sharp
absorption peak at (377) nm in UV region, the high absorption and large optical energy gap of films makes it usable
in the field of solar cells. The results proved the efficiency and purity for ZnO-NPs, which making it suitable for
medical applications, different industrial applications.

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