Comparative study of crystallite size using Williamson-Hall and Debye-Scherrer plots for ZnO nanoparticles

Abstract ZnO nanoparticles at different pH were synthesised by a sol-gel technique from zinc acetate dihydrate at a calcination temperature of 450 °C. The synthesized ZnO nanoparticles were characterised by x-ray diffraction (XDR) peak profile analysis, high-resolution scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The effects of solution pH on the crystallite size using Williamson-Hall and Debye–Scherrer were determined. The XRD analysis of the zincite phase structure of ZnO nanoparticles was obtained in the form of spheres for all the samples. The average crystallite sizes of ZnO nanoparticles decrease with increasing pH. The crystallite sizes of ZnO nanoparticles were investigated using Williamson-Hall analysis and Scherrer’s formula. The parameters such as dislocation density and lattice strain were computed for the diffraction peaks of XRD in the range of 2 θ = 10–90°. The results showed that the crystallite sizes calculated from Scherrer’s equation and Williamson-Hall analysis from XRD are not inter-correlated. Both methods give a wide deviation of crystallite size. Also, it was found that the crystallite sizes using both methods decrease with an increase in pH. Smaller crystallite sizes were estimated using the Scherrer’s formula. Thus, it is deduced that the equation fitted well for the synthesised ZnO nanoparticles.