Real-time structural study of the synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles capped with dodecanethiol molecules

This work reports a real-time structural study of the synthesis of zinc oxide (ZnO) capped nanoparticles (NPs) by sol-gel method. The experimental set-up developed in order to perform the in-situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is fully described, as well as the initial results. The size, crystallinity and short range order of the NPs was investigated, focusing on the timedependence of the process. It is pointed out that, while the nanoparticles growth occurs and reaches the maximum point in less than 10 minutes, the short range order around Zn atoms needs about 20 minutes to be stabilized. We point out that the present set up can be used also for other X-ray techniques such as X-ray Diffraction (XRD).