SYNTHESIS AND INVESTIGATION OF SPHERICAL ZnO NANOSTRUECTURES PREPARED BY GELATION METHOD

ZnO nanoparticles have been extensively studied over the past few years due to their special electronic and optical properties. It is generally believed that the usefulness of ferromagnetic wide band gap semiconductors for spin electronics applications requires the existence of a coupling between ferromagnetic and semi conducting properties. ZnO is an important electronic and photonic material because of its wide direct band gap of 3.37 eV. So, recently many scientists are interested to control of synthesis and morphology of ZnO nanoparticles. In this paper, the spherically shape of ZnO nanostructure successfully was synthesized by gelation method. In comparison with sol-gel method, the gelation method is more economical. The effect of temperature and time of heat treatment were investigated. Moreover, pH effect of solution for ZnO growth on was studied. The structure of crystal phases were determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and showed the ZnO nanoparticles have the wurtzite crystalline structure. Also, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was applied to investigate the morphology. However, the gelation method is appropriate for fundamental understanding and improvement of commercial synthesis of ZnO. Indeed, the gelation method guarantees the production of ZnO for different applications especially reinforcement materials in nanocomposites