10.57647/inl.2025.1401.03

Zinc oxide nanoparticles assembling by a green chemistry method

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  • Adrien Bonneau1,
  • Marie-Angèle Frémy1,
  • Sylvie Villain1,
  • Gilles Baratto2,
  • Vincent Cot3,
  • Patricia Merdy*1,
  1. Université de Toulon, Aix Marseille Univ., CNRS, IM2NP, Toulon, France
  2. Véolia Eau, Var Provence Méditerranée, La Garde, France
  3. Véolia Eau, Var Provence Méditerranée, La Garde, France La Garde, France
Zinc oxide nanoparticles assembling by a green chemistry method

Published in Issue 2025-09-29

Copyright (c) 2025 Adrien Bonneau, Marie-Angèle Frémy, Sylvie Villain, Gilles Baratto, Patricia Merdy (Author)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Bonneau, A., Frémy, M.-A., Villain, S., Baratto, G., Cot, V., & Merdy, P. (2025). Zinc oxide nanoparticles assembling by a green chemistry method. International Nano Letters. https://doi.org/10.57647/inl.2025.1401.03
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Abstract

Zinc oxide is a semiconductor material with an interesting potential for photocatalysis of organic pollutants. It has been prepared according an eco-friendly green method, using five various plant extracts (banana, rosemary, bitter orange, olive tree, comfrey). Two different synthesis processes were tested: a hotplate synthesis and a hydrothermal method. Metal precursor used was zinc acetate. Plants present in the process allowed the formation and the self-assembling of ZnO during the crystal growth thanks to the large chemical family of polyphenol which act as reductants. Crystalline and organic matter-free compounds obtained after annealing were characterized with diffractive reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) to determine gap energies and confirm ZnO belonging to semiconductors, X-ray diffraction to verify the crystalline structure and its features, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to check the characteristic functional group and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to reveal the self-assembling forms of ZnO. Data about the shapes, dimensions and crystal planes of zinc oxide were regarded in the light of the plant and the synthesis method used. This work has highlighted the morphologies of ZnO obtained on the basis of the synthesis method and the plant extracts.

Highlight

  • Zinc oxide has been synthesized by a green process using several plant extracts.
  • Hotplate and hydrothermal synthesis methods were compared in terms of ZnO properties.
  • SEM observations of the various ZnO powders obtained showed great variations in morphologies.
  • The ZnO variabilities obtained were the result of the plant used rather than the synthesis method used.
  • XRD and gap energy measured are quite similar whatever the plant extract.

Keywords

  • Zinc oxide,
  • Green-chemistry,
  • Synthesis method,
  • Plant extracts
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