Microwave-Assisted Combustion Synthesis of Nanocrystalline ZnO Powders Using Zinc Nitrate and Various Amount of Organic Fuels as Reactants: Influence of Reactant Parameters - A Status Review
Nanocrystalline ZnO powders have been synthesized by a novel and simple microwave-assisted combustion synthesis method using urea, glycine, carbohydrazine and citric acid as fuels and zinc nitrate as oxidant. The starting materials were directly mixed and a slurry precursor with high homogeneity was formed due to the hygroscopicity of the reactants. The precursor could be ignited at room temperature, resulting in dry, loose and voluminous ZnO powders. An interpretation based on an adiabatic flame temperature, amount of gases produced during reaction for various fuel-to-oxidizer molar ratios (ψ), has been proposed for the nature of combustion and its correlation with the characteristics of as-synthesized product. The variation of adiabatic flame temperature (Tad) with the ψ value was calculated theoretically according to the thermodynamic concept. The reaction process of the precursor was investigated by XRD techniques.