Synthesis and characterization of ZnO/SiO2 core/shell nanocomposites and hollow SiO2 nanostructures

In this paper, we prepared the ZnO nanoparticles by a simple hydrothermal method and fabricated the ZnO/SiO2 core/shell nanostructures through a sol–gel chemistry process successfully. The hollow SiO2 nanostructures were obtained by selective removal of the ZnO cores. The structure, morphology and composition of the products were determined by the techniques of X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results indicated that the ZnO nanoparticles were sphere-like shape with the average size of 60 nm and belonged to hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure. With the coating of SiO2, the vibration modes of Si–O–Si and Si–OH were found. Furthermore, the measurement results of optical properties showed that spectra of bare ZnO nanoparticles and ZnO/SiO2 core/shell nanocomposites exhibited similar emission features, including a blue emission peak and an orange emission band.