Optical Studies of ZnO Nanoparticles and 1-D Nanofibers

Highly crystalline ZnO nanoparticles and one dimensional (1-D) ZnO nanofibers were prepared respectively by polyol and electrospinning methods. Both the samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV-vis spectroscopy. The XRD results showed the formation of nanocrystalline phase in both the samples and also the average crystallite size is calculated and it is found to be 65 nm and 26nm for samples prepared by polyol and electrospinning respectively. SEM images showed the spherical size of ZnO sample prepared by polyol and 1-D nanofibers of ZnO samples prepared by electrospinning. Optical properties of different morphology of ZnO nanomaterials were studied by UV-vis spectroscopy. The UV-vis absorption spectra of both the samples showed the different intensity and slight blue shift of absorption peaks in the UV-vis region, which corresponds to change the energy band gap of both the samples.