OICC Press International Nano Letters 2228-5326 3 1 (December 2013) 2013 05 07 Synthesis, characterization and optical properties of zinc oxide nanoparticles 10.1186/2228-5326-3-30 EN Surabhi Siva Kumar Department of Chemistry, Anil Neerukonda Institute of Technology and Sciences, Sangivalasa, Visakhapatnam, 531 162, IN Putcha Venkateswarlu Department of Physics, Anil Neerukonda Institute of Technology and Sciences, Sangivalasa, Visakhapatnam, 531 162, IN Vanka Ranga Rao Department of Chemistry, Government College (Autonomous), Rajahmundry, 533 105, IN Gollapalli Nageswara Rao School of Chemistry, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, 530 003, IN Journal Article 2013 05 07 Abstract Zinc oxide nanoparticles were synthesized using a simple precipitation method with zinc sulfate and sodium hydroxide as starting materials. The synthesized sample was calcined at different temperatures for 2 h. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) analysis. SEM images show various morphological changes of ZnO obtained by the above method. The average crystallite sizes of the samples were calculated from the full width at half maximum of XRD peaks by using Debye-Scherrer's formula and were found to be in the nanorange. EDS shows that the above route produced highly pure ZnO nanostructures. PIXE technique was used for trace elemental analysis of ZnO. The optical band gaps of various ZnO powders were calculated from UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopic studies.