Synthesis and characterization of carbon nanotube/zinc oxide composites

ZnO/CNT composites were successfully prepared by sol-gel method based on zinc acetate 2-hydrate (Zn(CH₃COO)₂·2H₂O), absolute ethanol (C₂H₅OH) and diethanolamine (HN(CH2CH2OH)2, DEA) as a solvent and sol stabilizer. Carbon nanotube with 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 %w/v were loaded into the prepared sol. Then the mixed sols were dried at 100°C and annealed at 300, 350 and 400°C in ambient air. The crystalline structure and surface morphology ZnO/CNT composites were characterized by XRD and SEM. The preliminary results shown that the ZnO/CNT composites with CNT-doped 0.1%w/v exhibited hexagonal wurtzite structure with (100), (002), (101), (102) and (110) peak orientation plane for all annealed temperatures. In addition, ZnO grain sizes increased with annealed temperatures. SEM results shown that ZnO covered the CNT surface.