Colored fluorescent zinc oxide nanoparticles

In this article, we present a synthesis of "zinc oxide nanoparticles" fluorescing in various colors for school chemistry education. We will show that both the phenomenon of fluorescence as well as the different fluorescence colors can be interpreted using basic concepts of chemistry. Besides the finding that the properties of nanomaterials differ from those of their analogs with macroscopic sizes, the experiment enables students to understand that in a certain size range on the nanometer scale substance properties can be modified by manipulating the particle size. Today, this characteristic is being utilized in a number of technical areas of application. In addition to the synthesis we further present experiments using zinc oxide nanoparticles as low-cost UV light detectors, for the detection of photocatalytic activity as well as to visualize the effect of nanomaterials on plant cells.