One-pot hydrothermal synthesis of Fe-doped ZnO nanoparticles

Zinc oxide is a highly studied material due to its versatile properties and widespread use in multiple fields of application. Therefore, it is important to develop methods to synthesize zinc oxide particles, capable of achieving homogeneous morphology and size, to maximize their applicability as well as improve and control their properties.

This study focuses on the production of Fe-doped zinc nanoparticles via one-pot hydrothermal synthesis, since although there is currently a wide variety of well-established procedures for their production, these methods tend to require many steps and highly specialized equipment to achieve adequate control of the nanoparticles produced.

Therefore, hydrothermal synthesis is proposed as a simpler method to achieve better control of crystallized nanoparticles via a single step without requiring any further purification or refinement of the crystalline structures.

To enhance the properties of the ZnO nanoparticles, doping of the wurtzite structure with Fe ³⁺ ions in quantities from 1 to 10% was proposed, and experiments were carried out on Teflon-lined stainless-steel autoclaves at 160 °C during various reaction intervals (1–12 h) using Zn(NO₃)₂ 6H₂O, FeCl₃·6H₂O and NaOH solutions as hydrothermal media.

All the obtained powders analyzed by XRD displayed defined peaks coinciding with the ZnO in wurtzite phase, indicating that no secondary phases crystallized during the treatment. In addition, displacement was concurrent with the decreasing size of the crystallite as the Fe ³⁺ content increased (32 to 28 nm). Finally, FT-IR and UV-Vis spectroscopy indicated the formation of ZnO nanoparticles doped with high Fe content.