The Effect of the Rate of Precursor Production on the Purity and Aggregation

Grainne Duffy
Declan Mccormack, Technological University Dublin
Suresh Pillai, Technological University Dublin

Document Type Article

Grainne M. Duffy,Suresh C. Pillai, and Declan E. McCormack

J. Mater. Chem., 2007, 17, , 181–184

Abstract

The synthesis of zinc oxide through the decomposition of a solid oxalate precursor was investigated. It was found that the rate of preparation of the precursor had a quantitative effect on the morphology and extent of surface ligation of particles produced; contrary to our expectations,it was found that the slow combination of reagents led to a less pure product. It has been determined that this time dependence mimics the variation of reactant ratios. Zinc oxide particles were produced from a number of reactant ratios, and were characterised by TEM, XRD, FT-IR and DSC. It was found that the size of the crystallites produced was not affected, but that the nature of their surface ligation did rely upon these parameters.