Optical and morphological characterization of ZnO nano-sized powder synthesized using single step sol-gel technique

ZnO is a wide band gap semiconductor and is very attractive because of its fundamental and technological importance. It is extensively used in research due to its properties viz. excellent chemical & thermal stability, large exciton binding energy, anti-corrosion and heat resistance. It is a promising material for optoelectronic devices in both UV and Visible regions. In the present investigation, ZnO nano powder was synthesized by single step Sol-gel technique using zinc acetate dihydrate as a precursor and ethanol as a medium. The synthesized ZnO nano powder was characterized using UV-Vis, FTIR, XRD, RAMAN, Photoluminescence (PL), Nano-particle size analyzer, SEM and EDX techniques. UV-Vis spectra gives intense peak at 372 nm wavelength showing the presence of absorption band due to ZnO nano powder. The chemical bonding among Zn and O can be clearly observed from FTIR spectrum. XRD spectra displays sharp peaks which indicates the crystalline nature of ZnO. It also shows homogeneity and size consistency of prepared nanoparticles. The crystallite size of ZnO nano powder were calculated using Scherrer's formula. The morphology and elemental analysis have been studied via SEM and EDX techniques. All the characterization results have been correlated with each other.