Influence of sodium dodecyl sulfonate on the formation of ZnO nanorods from ε -Zn(OH)2

Abstract

The influence of sodium dodecyl sulfonate (SDSN) on the formation of ZnO nanorods from ε-Zn(OH)2 was investigated in this paper. The ε-Zn(OH)2 precursor was prepared at room temperature using ZnSO4 and NaOH as the reactants and then converted to ZnO nanorods after aging at 80°C in NaOH solution containing a minor amount of sodium dodecyl sulfonate (SDSN). The experimental results and the molecular simulation revealed that the influence of SDSN on the formation of ZnO from ε-Zn(OH)2 should be attributed to the adsorption of SDSN on ε-Zn(OH)2 surfaces, which inhibited the dissolution of ε-Zn(OH)2 in NaOH solution, leading to the formation of the ZnO nanorods with a diameter of 50-200 nm, a length of 3.0-15.0 m, and an aspect ratio of 30-100. © 2013 Jing Wang et al.