An environment-benign solvothermal method for the synthesis of flower-like hierarchical nickel and zinc compounds and their transformation to nanoporous NiO and ZnO

Zai Xing Yang, Wei Zhong*, Chaktong Au, Jing Ying Wang, You Wei Du

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

27 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Flower-like hierarchical Ni3(NO3)2(OH) 4 and Zn5(OH)8(NO3) 2(H2O)2 compounds were synthesized by a simple solvothermal method. Absolute ethanol was adopted as solvent, and the precursor is the corresponding nitrate. The as-prepared products were studied by XRD, SEM, TEM, and SAED. It is noted that compared to the conventional oil-water surfactant system, this biosafe alcohol system is simpler and environmentally more benign. Through calcination of the as-synthesized nickel and zinc compounds, nanoporous NiO and ZnO were generated. The optical properties of the nanoporous NiO and ZnO microcrystals have been discussed in terms of photoluminescence (PL) at room temperature. An emission band centered at ca. 2.3 eV that could only be found by cathodoluminescence was observed for the NiO microcrystals. We tentatively assign the peak to the magnetic exciton state 3d82p and relate it to the unique nanostructure of the nanoporous NiO microcrystals.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1831-1837
Number of pages7
JournalCrystEngComm
Volume13
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 Mar 2011

Scopus Subject Areas

  • General Chemistry
  • General Materials Science
  • Condensed Matter Physics

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