Synthesis and characterization of ZnO polymer nanocomposites

Abstract

The main objective of the present thesis involves the Synthesis and Characterization of ZnO/Polymer Nanocomposites. In recent years, the study of properties and synthesis of different nano-structured metal oxides have received great interest. These metal oxide nanostructures posses valuable and unique properties in terms of structural, optical and electrochemical properties. In various fields, the metal oxide nanostructures and their nanocomposites with polymer have advanced applications. In present work, we have synthesized surfactant assisted ZnO nanostructures and its nanocomposites with Polyaniline (PANI). ZnO is an interesting semiconductor with wide band of 3.37 eV and is useful in different applications like UV lasers, photocatalysts, light emitting diodes sensing. ZnO nanostructures and ZnO/PANI nanocomposites have interesting electrochemical properties which make them suitable for sensing applications. The whole work has been distributed into six chapters and each chapter is a self contained unit in itself. The study describes the introduction part of nanotechnology, nanoparticles, metal oxide nanoparticles, polymer nanocomposites, surfactants, the synthesis methods and their different properties. A detailed description of various characterization techniques like X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), UV-Visible spectroscopy, Photoluminescence spectroscopy, Cyclic voltammetry and Differential Pulse voltammetry has also been discussed. Also to study the influence of surfactants, different concentrations of trisodium citrate, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and Sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) have been used. Hexagonal wurtzite structure has been obtained for ZnO nanostructures with and without surfactants. Different parameters like glutaraldehyde, time and scan rate using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) for trisodium citrate assisted ZnO/PANI/ITO nanocomposites were optimized. T