Synthesis and characterization of ZnO/SiO2 core/shell nanocomposites and hollow SiO2 nanostructures

Abstract In this paper, we prepared the ZnO nanoparticles by a simple hydrothermal method and fabricated the ZnO/SiO 2 core/shell nanostructures through a sol–gel chemistry process successfully. The hollow SiO 2 nanostructures were obtained by selective removal of the ZnO cores. The structure, morphology and composition of the products were determined by the techniques of X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results indicated that the ZnO nanoparticles were sphere-like shape with the average size of 60 nm and belonged to hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure. With the coating of SiO 2 , the vibration modes of Si–O–Si and Si–OH were found. Furthermore, the measurement results of optical properties showed that spectra of bare ZnO nanoparticles and ZnO/SiO 2 core/shell nanocomposites exhibited similar emission features, including a blue emission peak and an orange emission band.