Synthesis and characterization of nano ZnO, nano Ag/ZnO composite & nano-particles embedded polymers

Zinc oxide and silver/zinc oxide nano particles were synthesized by a simple precipitation method in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). The presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone prevents agglomeration and allows the formation of nano sized particles. Characterization of synthesized nano particles were carried out using X-ray powder diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscopy, and the average sizes were determined by zeta seizer. The X-ray diffraction shows that the prepared particles were poorly crystalline. The DSC results show that the prepared particles are highly stable and no phase changes were observed when heated from room temperature to 500°C. Scanning electron microscopic observation shows that the particles are uniformly distributed with similar shape. Zeta seizer results show that the prepared particles are nano-particles with average size of about 100 nm. The prepared Zinc oxide nano particles were embedded into the polycaprolactone (PCL) polymer to study the effect of embedding zinc oxide nanoparticle on PCL crystallinity and mechanical properties. ZnO nano particles were successfully embedded into the polymer using in-situ and non-in-situ embedding processes. Characterization of PCL embedded with ZnO nanoparticles was performed by X-ray diffraction technique and scanning electron microscope. Crystallinity studies were done by using differential scanning calorimetry and the results show that the polymer embedded using an in situ process showed a decrease in crystallinity compared to the polymer embedded using a non-insitu process.