Effects of different complexing agents on the physical properties of ZnO nanoparticles

ZnO nanoparticles have been synthesised via a co-precipitation method using different complexing agents. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed that ZnO nanoparticles were composed of a single hexagonal wurtzite phase. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis indicates that the samples prepared without any complexing agent have slight agglomeration characteristics presenting a prismatic morphology and a wider size distribution from 22 to 72 nm, which provides good material packing density. However, samples synthesised using urea and glycine are similar and show spherical-like morphology. XRD and TEM analyses indicate that complexing agents also have an important role in the size of the ZnO nanoparticles, where the average particle size of 47 and 22 nm were obtained using urea and glycine, respectively.