Preparation of ZnO Nanostructures by Chemical Precipitation Method

ZnO nanostructures have been successfully prepared by dissolution–reprecipitation of micro-sized ZnO powder from aqueous ammonium hydrogencarbonate solution in the presence of thiourea, followed by calcination at 400°C for 1 h. The products were characterized by simultaneous thermal analysis, x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, selected-area electron diffraction, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy analysis. The results reveal that the morphology and particle size of the as-prepared ZnO samples are susceptible to the amount of added thiourea. The developed method has potential for application in industry due to simple processing and inexpensive reagents.