Nucleation and growth of catalyst-free zinc oxide nanostructures

This paper deals with the investigations on the nucleation and growth of Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanostructures in a catalyst free synthesis. The ZnO nanostructures have been formed by evaporation of Zn (99.99%) in O2 and Ar atmosphere in single zone furnace under two temperature regions, region A (approximately 1173-1073 K) and region B (approximately 873-773 K). Through application of XRD and TEM techniques, it has been shown that first ZnO is formed which changes to ZnOx through creation of oxygen vacancies. The ZnOx acts as self-catalyst and leads to formation of various nanostructures. Those observed in the present investigation are nanotetrapods (1 D, diameter approximately 70-450 nm, length approximately 2-4.5 approximatelym) nanorods (1 D, diameter approximately 45-95 nm, length approximately 2.5-4.5 microm), nanoflowers(2D, central core diameter approximately 90-185 nm, length of petals/nanorod approximately 1.0-3.5 microm) and nanoparticles (3D, size approximately 0.85-2.5 microm). These nanostructures have been revealed by SEM explorations. Attempts have been made to explain the formation of the various nanostructures in terms of the creation and distribution of the ZnOx, the temperature as well as oxygenation conditions.