Elsevier

Solid State Communications

Volume 113, Issue 6, 30 December 1999, Pages 363-366
Solid State Communications

Hydrothermal synthesis of zinc oxide powders with different morphologies

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0038-1098(99)00472-XGet rights and content

Abstract

Zinc oxide powders have been successfully prepared via hydrothermal process. The effects of reaction temperature and organic additives on the particulate properties such as the particle morphology and size are discussed. The result reveals that high temperature leads to a similar growth speed of different crystallographic planes and several templates result in the formation of particles with different morphologies and sizes.

Introduction

Zinc oxide is intensively used in a variety of applications such as varistors, semiconductors and so on [1]. On the contrary, zinc oxide powders with ultrafine particles are applicable to various materials such as photo-catalysts and nonlinear optical materials.

Zinc oxide powders are generally obtained by the thermal decomposition technique or co-precipitation method [2], [3], [4], [5]. As a method for preparing high-quality ceramic powders, the hydrothermal synthetic route has advantages to obtain high crystallized powders with narrow grain size-distribution and high purity without treatment at high temperature. The particle properties such as morphology and size can be controlled via the hydrothermal process by adjusting the reaction temperature, time and additives [6], [7]. Several oxides such as γ-Fe2O3, ZrO2 and PZT [8], [9], [10] have been successfully prepared by this method and the hydrothermal technique has attracted great interest for it is one of the most promising methods for controlling particle size, morphology and size distribution. However, there is little information on the synthesis of zinc oxide powders using the hydrothermal method except the hydrothermal preparation of ZnO powders from different precursors [11] and hydrothermal ZnO crystal growth [12].

The present investigation focuses on the hydrothermal synthesis of zinc oxide powders and the effects of reaction temperature and template are also discussed. This paper considered the hydrothermal synthesis of zinc oxide powders has four advantages: (1) the reaction is carried out under moderate conditions; (2) powders with nanometer-size can be obtained by this method; (3) powders with different morphologies form by adjusting the reaction conditions; and (4) the as-prepared powders might have different properties from those obtained at high temperature.

Section snippets

Experimental

All the reagents are of analytical grade and without further purification before utilization.

The synthesis procedure is as follows: ZnCl2 and NaOH with molar ratio of 1:2 are dissolved in deionized water, and the white Zn(OH)2 precipitate forms. After filtration and washing with deionized water, the white precipitate is dispersed in deionized water and the pH value is adjusted to 5–8 by HCl. After stirring for about 3 h, the homogeneous sol is poured into a teflon-lined autoclave and

Effect of reaction temperature

Table 1 lists the synthesis conditions and the particle properties as well as the full width on half maximum of the 002 diffraction reflection of the as-prepared zinc oxide without additives. Pure zinc oxide powder is formed only after hydrothermal heating at 100°C for about 10 h and the reaction time is obviously reduced with the reaction temperature increasing from 100 to 220°C. Compared to other method for synthesizing zinc oxide powders, the reaction condition is considerably moderate. The

Conclusions

The main conclusions of the present study are as follows:

  • 1.

    Zinc oxide powders with different particle morphologies and sizes have been obtained via the hydrothermal process using different organic compounds as template agents.

  • 2.

    The reaction temperature significantly influences the particle morphology. Increasing the temperature, the particle morphologies change from rod-like to polyhedra.

  • 3.

    Particles with different morphologies and sizes can be obtained by adjusting the template agents.

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Key Lab. of Inorganic Synthesis and Preparation of the Jilin University.

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