The study of X-ray effect on structural, morphology and optical properties of ZnO nanopowder

This article demonstrates the effect of X-ray on structure, morphology and optical properties of zinc oxide (ZnO) nano powder. The characteristics were investigated using XRD, FE-SEM, EDX and UV–vis spectroscopy. In this study, X-ray with doses equivalent to 10 (S2) and 20 Gy (S3) Gy were used to irradiate ZnO. The XRD analysis shows that the average crystallite size for non-irradiated ZnO (S1) is 49.39 nm. The crystallite size was reduced to 45.69 when irradiated at 10 Gy dose (S2) and further reduced to 45.18 nm when irradiated at 20 Gy dose. The FE-SEM analysis shows that the average maximum grain size of the non-irradiated ZnO sample (S1) is 151 nm. The average grain size was found reduced to 138 nm when irradiated at 10 Gy dose (S2) and further reduced to 115 nm when irradiated at dose equivalent to 20 Gy (S3). The FE-SEM analysis showed that the non-irradiated ZnO displayed hexagonal shape with sharp edges. On FE-SEM images, the ZnO displayed sharp edges with hexagonal shape. After irradiation, the FE-SEM images showed that the shape to be less sharp (blunt) but the hexagonal characteristic was maintained for both S2 and S3. The elemental composition of the ZnO via EDX analysis showed no effect and changes on X-ray irradiation. The UV–visible analysis showed that the energy band gap, Eg increased from 3.11 before irradiation (S1) to 3.18 (S2) and 3.197 eV (S3) after irradiation by 10 Gy and 20 Gy respectively. In summary, this study shows that X-ray irradiation has significantly affect the structure, morphology and optical properties of the ZnO nano powder.