Zinc oxide nanoparticle growth from homogenous solution: Influence of Zn:OH, water concentration, and surfactant additives

Zinc oxide particle growth from homogeneous solution was monitored using in situ UV–vis spectroscopy. Final particle size and overall growth rate increased with increasing zinc to hydroxide concentration ratio and were both sensitive to the surfactant added. Particle growth was fit using two models: (1) the classic coarsening model and (2) the simultaneous coarsening and oriented aggregation model. Results demonstrate that using adamantane carboxylic acid as a surfactant additive inhibits ZnO nanoparticle growth both by coarsening and oriented aggregation as compared to using other monocarboxylates (e.g., acetate and tribromoacetate). In addition, ZnO nanoparticle growth was independent of water concentration within the range of 40–100 mM for the conditions studied here (1 mM zinc perchlorate, 1.6 mM hydroxide, and 0.38 mM adamantane carboxylic acid). High-resolution transmission electron micrographs confirm inhibited growth by oriented aggregation for ZnO grown with adamantane carboxylic acid. Results are compared to previous work and generally show that ZnO growth by coarsening and oriented aggregation can be selectively inhibited or promoted by judicious selection of the surfactant additive.