Photonic crystals in biology

Poster Session, Tuesday, June 15
Theme A1 - B702
Fas t Track Preparat ion of ZnO nanorods in Water
M. A. Shah 1 *, F.M.Al-Marzouki 1 and A.A. Al-Ghamdi 1
1 Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah 21589, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Abstract-We will present a fast, soft, economical and bio-safe synthesis of hexagonal-shaped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods at very low temperature
of ~120 o C simply by using metallic zinc powder and de-ionized (DI) water without the use of any additives or amines. The product is believed to
be bio-safe and bio-compatible and can be readily used for medicine besides other applications.
Nanostructures of zinc oxide (ZnO), including particles,
rods, wires, belts, tubes, cages, walls, flowers and rings have
scattered a great deal of attention in recent years because of
their useful electronic and optoelectronic properties and
novel application in catalysis, paints, wave filters, UV
detectors, transparent conductive films, varistors, gas
sensing, solar cells, sun screens and other cosmetic products.
Moreover, the wide range of morphological diversity in the
nano-regime has made this material a promising candidate in
the field of nanotechnology and opened up new possibilit ies
for the fabrication of high performance devices based on
these nanostructures. Among the various nanoforms, one
dimensional (1D) nanostructures have received considerable
attention due to their potential interests for understanding
fundamental physical concepts and for efficient field
emission that has enormous commercial applications such as
field emission flat panel displays, x-ray sources, parallel
beam electron microscopy and vacuum microwave
amp lifiers [1].
Synthesis of nanomaterials forms a vital aspect of the
science of nanomaterials and chemical methods have proved
to be more effective and versatile than physical methods and
have, therefore, been employed widely. While nanomaterials
have been generated by physical methods too such as laser
ablation, arc discharge and evaporation, chemical methods
have proved to be more attractive as they provide better
control over the size and shape, which is one of the essential
features in nanoscience. Chemical synthesis of nanomaterials
has been reviewed by few authors but innumerable
improvements and better methods are being reported
continually in the last few years [2,3].
In this work we will explore the formation of ZnO
nanostructures by the reaction of zinc metal with DI water at
very low temperature of 120oC. The simple reaction is
carried out in absence of any additives and/or amines. The
synthesized ZnO products were characterized in terms of
their structural and optical properties. By the morphological
investigations using FESEM, it was observed that the grown
products are hexagonal-shaped ZnO nanorods with the
diameters and lengths in the range of 70-90 nm with several
micrometers. The EDS and XRD pattern confirmed the
composition and crystallin ity of the grown nanorods and
revealed that the grown products are pure ZnO with the
wurtzite hexagonal phase. The optical properties of grown
products were characterized by room-temperature
photoluminescence spectroscopy which confirmed the good
optical properties for the grown products.
[2] H. Wie, Y. Wu, N. Lun, and C. Hu, Mater. Sci. Eng. A Vol.
393, 80 (2005).
[3] Z.W. Pan, Z.R. Dia and Z.L. Wang, Science Vol. 291, 1947
(2001).
*Corresponding author: 0Tmashahnit@yahoo.com
[1] C. X. Xu, Y. Liu, and G. Wang, Solid State Communication
Vol. 122, 175 (2002).
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