MORPHOLOGICAL AND OPTICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF ELECTROSPUN ZINC OXIDE NANOFIBERS

Abstract

A combination of the remarkably simple technique of electrospinning, developed to fabricate polymer nanofibers, and sol–gel processing has been utilized to produce fine zinc oxide nanofibers with an average diameter of 70 nm. A non-toxic precursor solution of polyvinyl alcohol and zinc acetate was electrospun and the resulting fibers were then calcined at a relatively low temperature to produce ZnO nanofibers. Simultaneous thermal analyses were used to study the formation of ZnO nanofibers from the precursor material. X-ray diffraction was employed to analyze the phases and different microscopy techniques, such as scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy were used to study the morphology and size of the fibers. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was employed to investigate the composition of the precursor and ZnO fibers. The specific surface area of the electrospun nanofibers was determined using the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method and optical properties were measured by UV-Vis and PL spectroscopy. The very high specific surface area of the ZnO fibers makes them potential candidates for nanodevice applications in gas sensing, dye-sensitized solar cells, and UV/blue emission devices.