Environment effect on structure, size control and stability of Zn and ZnO nanoparticles

Effects of liquid surrounding on production, initial size, colloidal stability and optical properties of zinc and zinc oxide nanoparticles, synthesized by pulsed laser ablation method in different liquid environments are studied. In this work, Zn and ZnO nanoparticles were produced by 532 nm harmonic of a Nd:YAG laser ablation of a pure zinc metal target in different aqueous solutions of deionized water, ethanol and sodium hydroxide with various concentrations and pH. It was found that by changing the pH and temperature of the environment, the structure, size, and stability of the colloidal nanoparticles changed. The particles produced using low ablation energies in NaOH solutions with 5<pH<10 and pH>10 were ZnO and Zn respectively. On the other hand, by increasing the temperature from 0 degC to 60 degC, larger particles were produced and their colloid was more stable. For characterizing nano-particle optical properties, structure, size and growth; UV-VIS absorbance and FTIR spectroscopy, and XRD were employed.