Growth Kinetics of ZnO Nanocrystals: A Few Surprises

Viswanatha, Ranjani and Amenitsch, Heinz and Sarma, DD (2007) Growth Kinetics of ZnO Nanocrystals: A Few Surprises. In: Journal of the American Chemical Society, 129 (14). pp. 4470-4475.

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Abstract

Using extensive state-of-the-art experiments over a wide range of synthesis parameters, such as the temperature and concentrations of different reactants, we establish qualitatively different growth kinetics for ZnO nanocrystals compared to all growth kinetics of semiconductor nanocrystals, incuding ZnO, discussed so far in the literature. The growth rate is shown to be strongly dependent on the concentration of $(OH)^-$ in an intriguing nonmonotonic manner as well as on temperature and is almost invariably much slower than well-known and generally accepted growth mechanisms based on a diffusion-controlled Ostwald ripening process or that expected in the surface reaction controlled regime. We show that these qualitatively different results arise from the unexpected role played by a part of the reactants by inhibiting rather than facilitating the reaction; we explain this extraordinary result in terms of an effective passivating layer around the growing nanocrystals formed by a virtual capping shell of $Na^+$ ions.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Journal of the American Chemical Society
Publisher:	American Chemical Society
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to American Chemical Society.
Department/Centre:	Division of Chemical Sciences > Solid State & Structural Chemistry Unit
Date Deposited:	28 Jun 2007
Last Modified:	17 Jan 2012 09:23
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/11302

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