MSE565 Assignment #1 Yijing Xu 54825742 Sep.

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Hydrothermal synthesis
Hydrothermal synthesis can be defined as a method of synthesis of single
crystals which depends on the solubility of minerals in hot water under high
pressure.

Due to its mild and low-cost route, synthesis of ZnO nanorods or nanowires
through Hydrothermal methods is of great significant.

Reaction mechanis

Abstract of the process :In hydrothermal conditions, through the chemical

reaction of Zn2+ salt and NaOH in P123-H20 system , synthesise 1D ZnO
nanorods or nanowires. The Autoclave provides a high temperature and high
pressure environment for hydrothermal synthesis process. Before moved into
the autoclaves, the reaction liquid should be thorough mixing in magnetic
stirrer. After hydrothermal reaction, the product need to be filtered,
washed， centrifuged and dried.

There are several factors that influents the hydrothermal reaction:

1.Alkalinity: the higher the alkalinity, the stronger the polarity growth
capability of ZnO with c-axis oriented.

Z.Q,Li,etal. Inorg Chem,2003,42:8105

2.Polymer assistant: if the colloid adsorbs the polymer(such as PEG)on
some area of its surface, the growth rate of the colloids in some certain
direction will be confined.
The addition of PEG will modify the growth kinetics of the growing colloids,
which finally leads into anisotropic growth of crystal.

3.Surfactants: surfactants will reduce activation energy of reactants;

transport growth units; promote anisotropic growth of crystals.

Noted that the a small portion of surfactants is added in the beginning of the
reaction, and the mother liquor can be used in subsequent process. In this
method, reactants are made full use of, theoretically ,the final by-products are
only NaCl and water.Therefore, it is a environmental friendly way to
synthesize ZnO since the zero emission of the whole process can be achieved.

Simple equipment, easy operation, high yeald and fine crystallization,

Hydrothermal method results in more and more applications in the synthesis
of nano-materials.

However,there still exits problems that need to be tackled:

First,the 1D nano-materials made by Hydrothermal methods are usually
chaotic distributed, intertwined with each other, which directly affects the
perfomance of test and application.

Second,because hydrothermal technology requires special closed reaction

vessel, reactions are dependent of laboratory equipment. The difficulty of
control and observation and monitoring over the reaction greatly reduced the
orientation degree of the target products.

Finally,how to synthesize various types of 1D functional materials which have

certain properties in a selective way; how to effectively control over the
structure ,components and shape-size of 1D nano-materials; these problems
not only is the limitation of the research and development of 1D nano-
materials but also provide new opportunities and challenges in the synthesis
of nano materials.