Nanoparticles of zinc oxide obtained by water in oil microemulsion system

This work reports results obtained from synthesis of zinc oxide powders via microemulsions of type water in oil through of two routes. The formation of microemulsions as confined reaction media to the synthesis involves the combination of emu oil, zinc acetate, and sodium hydroxide as precipitating agent. To reach the thermodynamic stability and find the hydrophilic-lipophilic balance of the microemulsions, Span-Tween 80 was used. Synthesized zinc oxide powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy transmission. ZnO powders presented a hexagonal wurtzite structure. Electron microscopy transmission images showed that synthesized powders presented a spherical morphology and nanometric-sized crystallites around 14 nm.