Preparation of ZnO Nanoparticles using Ultrasonic and Microwave Techniques

The objective of this work is the preparation of nanoparticles of Zinc Oxide, using ultrasonic and microwave techniques; for their use as electrochemical supercapacitors. The preparation of the Zinc oxide nanoparticles was done using hydrogen precursor method. The process parameters that were varied during the experiment are time, microwave and ultrasonic power, concentration of ZnCl2 and concentration of Hydrazine Hydrate. On characterization of the samples using Cyclic Voltammetry, ZnO with procured Activated carbon in Na2SO4 gave a wide window region, with the specific capacitance of ZnO oxide composite in the electrolyte approximately equal to 250 F/g. AC impedance analysis revealed that ZnO with procured Activated carbon enhanced the conductivity, by reducing the internal resistance from 2500 ohms to 22 ohms. Further characterization was done using the X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) technique. This showed that the formed particles were of ZnO, and the size of the particles using Scherrer Formula was <100 nm. Other characterization such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was also done on the samples