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The growth kinetics of colloidal ZnO nanoparticles in alcohols

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Abstract

We have studied the synthesis of ZnO nanostructures over a wide range of parameters to determine the kinetics of the nanocrystals growth. The initial rapid nucleation and growth is kinetically controlled, the subsequent ZnO nanocrystals growth is thermodynamically controlled through the diffusion limited Ostwald coarsening. The ZnO coarsening rates increased with number of alcohol’s alkyl group carbons and temperature increase, pointing to importance of the solvent viscosity, dielectric constants, surface energy and the bulk solubility. The results are consistent with the Lifshitz–Slyozov–Wagner model. For all alcohols, in the NaOH induced reaction, a lower activation energy was observed compared to the aqueous reaction. A lower ZnO solubility, obtained by the water synthesis could be responsible for these observations. Our results point to the importance of the reactant selection in controlling the kinetics of the nanostructure formation, their size and the nature of the surface defects responsible for their luminescence.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by grants NN 518 424036, from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and Innovative Economy POIG.01.02-00-008/08.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, al Lotnikow 32/46, 02-668, Warsaw, Poland

    Bożena Sikora, Krzysztof Fronc, Izabela Kaminska, Anna Baranowska-Korczyc, Kamil Sobczak, Piotr Dłużewski & Danek Elbaum

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  1. Bożena Sikora
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  2. Krzysztof Fronc
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  3. Izabela Kaminska
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  4. Anna Baranowska-Korczyc
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  7. Danek Elbaum
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Correspondence to Bożena Sikora.

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Sikora, B., Fronc, K., Kaminska, I. et al. The growth kinetics of colloidal ZnO nanoparticles in alcohols. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 61, 197–205 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-011-2614-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-011-2614-5

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