Nanosized Zn and ZnO particles have attracted considerable interest for their various potential applications. Zn can act as both the fuel and a working catalyst in the Zn/ZnO thermochemical solar water splitting cycle for hydrogen generation, and ZnO is an important semiconductor. In this work, we combine two different ion-mobility schemes in series to study the size-resolved oxidation kinetics of zinc nanocrystals (NCs). The first mobility characterization size selects the NCs, whereas the second mobility characterization measures changes in mass resulting from a controlled oxidation of the NCs. A shrinking core model is used to extract the size-dependent oxidation activation energies, which are observed to be dependent on NC size. We also observed a strong anisotropy effect in the oxidation, as imaged by electron microscopy. An oxidation mechanism is proposed that qualitatively explains the oxidation anisotropy and its relationship to the surface energy of the Zn NCs.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Ma et al. (2009) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context:
More from The Journal of Physical Chemistry C