The Influence of Calcination Temperature on Structural and Optical Properties of ZnO Nanoparticles via Simple Polymer Synthesis Route

A simple polymer synthesis was used to successfully synthesized Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles (ZnO NPs), and the influence of the different calcination temperature on the structural, and optical properties of the material was observed using several techniques. The formation of ZnO NPs was confirmed by FT-IR, EDX, XRD, FESEM and TEM images upon calcination from 500-750 degrees C. The FESEM images showed the ZNO NPs synthesized possessed a hexagonal shape and tended to become larger at higher calcination temperature. The XRD and FTIR revealed the precursor to be amorphous at room temperature but transform to a crystalline structure during the process of calcination. The crystalline and particle size increase as the temperature was increased. The crystalline size was between 24-49 nm for all samples calcined at 500-750 degrees C. The optical properties obtained by UV-vis reflectance spectrometer have further confirmed the formation of ZnO NPs. The band gap exhibits typical ZnO wide band gap, and the values decrease with an increase in calcination temperature.