Green method for preparation ZnO nanoparticles using red peony leaves extracts

The source of clean, dry red peony leaves has been carefully packaged and preserved. Then the red peony leaves were extracted to get the extracts solution at the optimum extraction temperature, extraction time and leaves sample weight. The precursor material used to prepare ZnO nanoparticles with spherical wurtzite structure was zinc acetate dihydrate salt (Zn(O2CCH3)2.2H2O) with the reducing and stabilized agent being flavonoid extraction from red peony leaves. The structure and characterizations of the fabricated ZnO nanoparticles were studied by measurement methods such as XRD, SEM, EDX, reflectance spectra. The study results showed that the extraction parameters of peony leaves to obtain the optimal flavonoid extraction yield were red peony leaves weight of 20 grams extracted in 100 ml of distilled water, extraction time of 60 minutes and extraction temperature of 70 °C. ZnO spherical wurtzite nanoparticles were prepared by wet chemical method at low temperature of 110 oC, with particle size according to SEM were about of 200-400 nm. The band gap was determined by the Kubelka-Munk method to achieve Eg» 3.05-3.17 eV. The ZnO spherical wurtzite nanoparticles were prepared in this our study with further purposes will be modified to reduce the Eg bandgap energy for applications as  highly effective absorbents, photocatalysts in the visible light region.