Synthesis, Fabrication and Characterization of normal and Ag-ZnO Nanorods

Using a hydrothermal process, ZnO nanorods doped with varying amounts of Ag (0.1–0.5%) were created. The morphology and size of the nanorods (pure and doped ZnO) were observed by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). According to the SEM micrographs the synthesized materials have nanorods structures with a size of about 131 nm and 208 nm for Undoped and doped ZnO nanorods respectively. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) were used to determined percentage composition of material. EDX analysis shows that Ag has been successfully decorated with the surface of ZnO lattice. The presence of functional groups was investigated by Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) spectroscopy while crystalline phase of the Ag doped ZnO Nanorods was analyzed by using X-ray diffractometry (XRD). The crystallinity and crystal plane location of the fabricated Nanorods were elucidated from the XRD pattern. It was found that the fabricated pristine and doped nanorods are crystalline in nature having a hexagonal wurtzite structure. Ag was added to the ZnO nanorods up to a predetermined dopant concentration limit. The incorporation of Ag in the sites present at the Zn nanomaterial caused to increase size of nanorods as compared to pure ZnO.