A general single-pot heating method for morphology, size and luminescence-controllable synthesis of colloidal ZnO nanocrystals

Here we demonstrate a single-pot heating approach for controllable synthesis of colloidal zinc oxide nanocrystals from zinc acetylacetonate. Such single-pot heating approaches are inherently amenable to large scale production. We have systematically studied the crystallization process, investigating the growth of nanocrystals and the influence of ligands on the morphology and luminescence of ZnO nanoparticles. We show that the morphology can be tuned to produce dendritic structures, nano-needles, nano-pinecones, nanoclusters, hexagonal pyramid nanoparticles and irregularly-shaped nanoparticles by varying the surfactants and co-surfactants used in synthesis. Moreover, we investigated the effect of ligands on the defect-related photoluminescence of ZnO NPs and demonstrated blue, green, white, yellow, and orange emission. This study opens up new possibilities for the practical use of ZnO nanomaterials for optoelectronic devices and bio-imaging.