NaOH concentration effect on the oriented attachment growth kinetics of ZnS

In this work, the crystal growth kinetics of ZnS nanoparticles coarsened under 100 degrees C with NaOH concentration from 2 to 8 M was investigated, aiming to study the role of NaOH concentration on the oriented attachment growth kinetics. It reveals that 2 M NaOH is sufficient to lead to two-stage growth kinetics of ZnS nanoparticles, resulting in pure and multistep oriented attachment growth characteristics in the first stage. When the NaOH concentration increases, the rate of crystal growth by oriented attachment mechanism increases, while the time period for crystal growth at the pure oriented attachment stage was similar. We suggest that the concentration of solute is critical to enhance the oriented attachment growth rate and achieve exclusively oriented attachment growth of nanoparticles at a large size scale.