Influence of Cationic Surfactant and Temperature on the Growth of ZnO Nanoparticles

In this study, ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized from Zn(OAc)(2)center dot 2H2O and NaOH in 2-propanol. Nucleation and growth are fast, and hence at longer times the particle size is controlled by coarsening. The optical properties were investigated as a function of time. X-ray diffraction (XRD) also has been used to characterize ZnO nanoparticles. The wavelength onset (lambda(ons)) of the absorption spectra was used to estimate the particle size. The effect of the temperature and the surfactant on the growth process of ZnO nanoparticles was followed by UV-Vis spectrophotometer using the effective mass model. Particle growth was fitted using the commonly used linear coarsening model. The linear coarsening model is applied to calculate the rate constant of growth of ZnO nanoparticles. In all cases the linear coarsening produced good fits of the data. The results reveal that the temperature and the CTAB concentration play an important role in growth process of ZnO nanoparticles.