Structure and Optical Properties of ZnO and ZnO₂ Nanoparticles

Zinc oxide (ZnO) and Zinc peroxide (ZnO 2 ) nanoparticles were synthesized by colloidal method at low temperature. The thermal stability of ZnO 2 was studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD). The crystalline structure and phase change from ZnO 2 to ZnO by heat treatment was studied in detail. Morphology and particle size was examined using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), for as synthesized ZnO and ZnO 2 the shape of particles were cuasi-spherical for both materials with average size of 10±2.2 nm and 2.5±0.4 nm, respectively; The crystal size for ZnO obtained by heat treatment was 8±2.2 nm. Electron density contours show the chemical bond type ionic and covalent for ZnO and ZnO 2 . The vibrational properties were analyzed by Raman and IR spectroscopy. Band gap values were obtained from ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) absorbance spectrum. Photoluminescence (PL) spectrum for ZnO shows two emission edges located at 445 and 492 nm and in the case of ZnO 2 presents one edge at 364 nm originated from the band edge emission. The optical spectra present a hypsochromic shift, compared with some reported in the literature.