Structural and optical properties of ZnO

obtained by mechanosynthesis
PCM2532
Osiris Escamilla Luna1, Fabiola del Carmen Gómez Torres1, German Pérez Hernández1 Angélica Silvestre López Rodríguez1, Alberto Vega Poot3, Madhuri Sharon2 and Laura
Lorena Díaz Flores1*,
1Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco, Av, Universidad s/n Zona de la Cultura Col. Magisterial Villahermosa Centro Tabasco CP 86040 México.2Walchand Centre for

research in Nanotechnology & Bionanotechnology (WCRNB), Solapur, Maharashtra, India 3Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN Unidad Mérida Km. 6
Antigua carretera a Progreso Apdo. Postal 73, Cordemex, 97310, Mérida, Yuc., México
*Corresponding Author: laura.diaz@ujat.mx

ABSTRACT
Semiconducting materials have been studied extensively for sensing application. It has been proved that zinc oxide (ZnO) is a good gas sensitive material
for detection of both reducing and oxidizing gases. In the present work, efforts were made to synthesize ZnO nanostructure by mechanochemical route.
ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized by a mechanochemical method using ZnCl2 and Na2CO3 as precursors and NaCl as a diluent. After milling the
samples were washed with deionised water to remove NaCl and heated to 400°C for approximately 2 hours.
By using screen printing method, thick films of synthesized ZnO were deposited on glass substrate. A viscous screen printing paste was prepared by
dispersing ZnO powder in ethanol. Ethylcellulose was dissolved in ethanol. In order to balance the viscoelastic properties of the final paste, terpineol was
added to the ZnO dispersion. After mixing, the suspension was concentrated to a paste by evaporation of ethanol. After obtaining the paste, ZnO layers
were deposited on glass substrates. After application of all layers, the films were sintered at 450° C for 30 minutes. After deposition, the ZnO film thickness
was measured by profilometry and were characterized by X- ray diffraction as well as by IR*, U-V visible and Raman* spectroscopies. Also SEM* and
TEM morphological analysis.
*Not shown in this poster

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE

Mechanochemical Deposit Heat Treatment

Technique (Ball (450 °C)
Film
milling) (Screen Printing)

Mechanochemical Technique Screen Printing Paste

ZnCl2 Na2CO3 NaCl ZnO Ethanol Ethylcellulose Terpineol
3.348 g 2.604 g 11.483 g 0.5 g 20 ml 0.15 g 4.06 g

PRELIMINARY RESULTS
The results of the structural and morphological characterization of deposited thick films indicate formation ZnO and hence it is possible to
deposit ZnO thick films by the technique of screen printing(1). The band gap energy is found to be 3.18 eV, which is in good agreement
with earlier results, as evidenced by results from UV Vis spectroscopy(2). The approximate ZnO film thickness was 1.5 ± 0.2 µm per
application. It was also found that from the mechanochemical method it is possible to obtain crystalline ZnO at 450 °C, according to the
results of structural analysis of XRD. In addition, by the morphological analysis of HRTEM, the crystal structure of ZnO has a characteristic
morphology of wurtzite with hexagonal unit cell.

2.0
FWHM
Intensity (a. u.)
(101)

(hv)2 (eV/cm-1)2

1.5
(100)

Absorbance (%)

35.5 36.0 36.5 37.0

Intensity (a. u.)

2 (Deg.)
Lattice parameters Average grain size
a = 3.2556 A D = 32 nm 1.0
(002)

c = 5.2084 A 3.18 eV
(110)

0 1 2 3 4
hv (eV)
(103)

(112)
(102)

0.5
(201)
(200)

(004)

0.0
20 30 40 50 60 70 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000

2 (Deg.) Wavelength (nm)

Figure 1. XRD pattern of ZnO thick films Figure 2 Absorption spectra of ZnO thick film Figure 3. HRTEM analysis

CONCLUSIONS
With mechanochemical technique and screen printing method it is possible to obtain crystalline thick films of ZnO. The structural
characterization by XRD showed that the ZnO obtained by this route is hexagonal wurtzite structure . And band gap energy value obtained of
3.18 eV, indicates possible gas sensors aplications.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors are thankful to the project CONACYT INFRA-2014- 225962 and CONACYT CB_2015 256221 for financial support.
REFERENCES (1) F. I. Lizama-Tzec, R. Garcia-Rodiguez, G. Rodriguez-Gattorno, E. J. CantoAguilar, A. G. Vega-Poot, B. E. Heredia-Cervera, J. Villanueva-Cab, N.
Morales-Flores, U. Pal and G. Oskam, 2016, Influence of morphology on the performance of ZnO-based dye-sensitized solar cells, RSC Advances.
(2) Rayees A. Zargar, Santosh Chackrabarti, Shereena Joseph, Mohd. Shahid Khan, Rizwan Husain, A.K. Hafiz , 2015, Synthesis and characterization of screen
printed ZnO films for solar cell applications, Optik.