Effect of heat treatment on the reflective spectrum of zinc oxide powders

To determine the optimum baking temperatures for nanopowder introduction, the variation of reflective spectrum of baked zinc oxide powders, which are used as pigments for thermal control coatings of spacecraft, has been investigated over the wavelength range of 0.225–2.5 μm after being baked at temperatures between 400 °C and 850 °C. It has been established that baking temperatures over 750 °C result in a reduction of spectral reflectance in the visible light spectrum region. This is due to the formation of absorption bands of intrinsic point defects and thus increasing the spectral reflectance in the near-infrared region. The optimum temperature is 650 °C at which the bleaching effect was observed long after heat treatment. Moreover, an increase in the reflection coefficient occurs in the regions of 380–450 nm and 1100–2500 nm in this case.