Structural Characterization of Spinel Zinc Aluminate Nanoparticles Prepared By Coprecipitation Method

Abstract

Zinc aluminate is well known wide bandgap semiconductor with cubic spinel structure and transparent for wavelength greater than 320 nm. Therefore, ZnAl2O4 can be used for ultraviolet photoelectronic devices. Furthermore, spinel zinc aluminate is useful in many reactions as catalytic support. Moreover, zinc aluminate can be used as second phase in glaze layer of white ceramics to improve wear resistance and to preserve whiteness. In present study cubic spinel zinc aluminate nanoparticles have been synthesized from aqueous solution of Zn(NO3)2.6H2O (0.1 M) and Al(NO3)2.9H2O (0.2 M) using chemical coprecipitation technique. Ammonium hydroxide was used as precipitating agent and pH was maintained between 8 to 9. The precipitated slurry was filtered and washed several times with deionized double distilled water and dried at 110 °C. The fine powder was annealed at different temperatures from 600 °C to 900 °C for 4h in temperature controlled furnace. Structural characterization of annealed samples was carried out via X‐ray Diffraction (XRD), and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). XRD patterns reveal that zinc aluminate samples were cubic spinel nanoparticles and grain size determined by Debye‐Scherrer formula is from 5 to 16 nm.