Investigate the effect of hydrothermal temperature on the structure and characterization of 20 % ZnO-Cu2O nanocomposite

Abstract

The ZnO with 20 mol.% was hybridized with Cu₂O to fabricate nanocomposites (20 % ZnO-Cu₂O (ZC NCs)) were prepared by hydrothermal method at the investigated temperatures of (120, 200 and 250) ℃. The structural properties and characterization of the materials were investigated by physical measurements including: XRD, SEM, EDX and solid sample UV-Vis spectra. The results showed that the fabricated material samples consist of two crystalline phases (ZnO wurtzite and Cu₂O octahedra) with calculated lattice parameters that were suitable for each type of crystal of the material. The average crystal sizes of the ZC120, ZC200 and ZC250 samples were (20.08, 20.36 and 22.50) nm respectively, which were grown lager when the hydrothermal temperature increase. The optical bandgap energy (Eg) of the ZC₁₂₀, ZC₂₀₀ and ZC₂₅₀ material samples was determined to be (2.51, 2.52 and 2.56) eV, respectively. These Eg values of the fabricated ZC NCs samples were intermediate between the two types of ZnO (Eg ~ 3.37 eV) and Cu₂O (Eg ~ 2.17 eV) materials, and was valid in the excitation region of visible light.

 ® 2023 Journal of Science and Technology − NTTU