Study of crystallite size and strain as a function of morphological evolution in zinc oxide powder obtained from hydroxycarbonate precursor

In this work, zinc oxide samples were obtained from hydroxycarbonate by the rmal decomposition at 300 degreesC. Zinc hydroxycarbonate samples were prod uced by homogeneous precipitation over different periods of time. The metho d used to obtain zinc oxide produces different morphologies as a function o f the precursor precipitation time. Among the obtained particle shapes were porous spherical aggregates, spherulitic needle aggregates, and single aci cular particles. This work investigated spherulitic needle-aggregate format ion and the correlation among morphology, domain size, and microstrain. Tra nsmission electron microscopy data revealed that the acicular particles tha t form the spherulitic needle aggregates consist of nanometer crystallites. Apparent crystallite size and microstrain in the directions perpendicular to (h00), (h0l), (hk0), and (00l) planes were invariable as a function of p recursor precipitation time. From the results, it was possible to conclude that the precursor precipitation period directly influenced the morphology of the zinc oxide but did not influence average crystallite size and micros train for ZnO samples. Therefore, using this route, it was possible to prep are zinc oxide with different morphologies without microstructural alterati ons. (C) 2001 International Centre for Diffraction Data.