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Synthesis and Characterization of Flower-Like Zinc Oxide Nanostructures by a Simple Low-Temperature Precipitation Method
Abstract
Flower-like zinc oxide (ZnO) structures were synthesized through a simple surfactant-free aqueous precipitation method using zinc acetate dihydrate and sodium hydroxide, followed by 16 h of static aging and calcination at 500 °C. The resulting material was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM–EDX), and laser diffraction particle-size analysis (PSA) to evaluate its crystallographic, morphological, elemental, and particle-size characteristics. XRD confirmed the formation of hexagonal wurtzite ZnO and yielded an average apparent crystallite size of 21.04 ± 4.28 nm based on the Debye–Scherrer equation. SEM analysis revealed hierarchical micro/nanostructures consisting of submicrometre subunits with an average size of 614 ± 158 nm assembled into micrometre-scale flower-like structures measuring 1,975 ± 317 nm. EDX detected Zn and O together with substantial residual Na (21.5 ± 1.4 wt%), indicating that the post-synthesis washing and purification steps require further improvement. Laser diffraction showed a bimodal volume-weighted particle-size distribution, with a primary mode at approximately 107 nm and a secondary population in the micrometre range. The finer population could not be assigned unambiguously to a specific morphological feature observed by SEM. The isolated product yield was 65.45%. Overall, the selected precipitation conditions successfully produced crystalline hierarchical flower-like ZnO, although further optimization of purification and recovery is required to improve material purity, reproducibility, and process efficiency
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