Influence of Zinc Salt Concentration on Structured ZnO Composition and Morphology

Abstract

In the present work, Zinc oxide nanorods (ZnO NRs) and Simonkolleite (Zn5(OH)8Cl22H2O) nanodisks were successfully prepared hydrothermally using zinc chloride as a zinc source salt. The molarity of the zinc salt was varied to investigate its effect on the structure of the synthesized nanostructures. X‐ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV‐visible optical transmittance, and photoluminescence were used to characterize the synthesized nanostructures. These results suggest that the morphology of the synthesized nanostructures was significantly influenced by the molarity of zinc chloride. We inferred that increasing zinc salt molarity above 0.01 M leads to a pure simonkolleite nanodisks. In contrast, ZnO NRs were formed at low concentrations.