Sol-Gel Syntheses of Zinc Oxide and Hydrogenated Zinc Oxide (ZnO:H) Phases

Zno synthesized by chemical precipitation with varying starch concentrations (0.00,0.01,0.02,0.05,0.10,0.15,and 0.20%) as stabilizing agent was used in making zno:h when placed in a glass tube under mild heat and hydrogen (h2) gas flow for 2 mins. observations showed that the sample colour changed from white to light brown and finally to dark brown during the process particularly for the zno-starch samples. xrd data of zno (0.02%) and zno:h (0.02%) showed zno as the major phase with zn(oh)2 impurity phase and a new zno:h peak at 2θ,29.60� for zno and zno:h,respectively. the estimated particle sizes determined from xrd were 47 and 30 nm,respectively. the sem of the 0.02% zno appeared more microporous and needle-like than those of 0.01%,while the edx of both confirmed zn and o as the main components. different conductivities of 30.90 and 27.50 μs/cm were obtained for zno and zno:h samples in ethanol,respectively. also,the uv-vis absorption for both showed n-type and p-type material absorption bands at 310 cm-1,while the intensities of all the characteristic zno ir bands at 430-552 (zno vibrations) and 1500-1640 cm-1 (zn-o stretching) increased for the corresponding zno:h samples. � 2017 joshua lelesi konne and bright obum christopher.