Structural, Optical, and Antifungal Characters of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Prepared by Sol-gel Method

The preparation of zinc oxide nanoparticles has been successfully done by employing a sol-gel route. The x-ray diffraction data analysis presented that the zinc oxide particles crystallized as hexagonal wurtzite structure and sized in nanometric scale of 35.8 nm. The scanning electron microscopy image showed that the sample had agglomeration pattern with the particles size of 38.2 nm. Such results were confirmed by a synchrotron small-angle x-ray scattering that the prepared sample agglomerated in 3-dimensional structure with a fractal dimension of about 3. The functional group of the Zn-O as the main component of zinc oxide were observed at the wavelengths of about 454 and 523 cm⁻¹. Moreover, the optical band gap energy of the zinc oxide nanoparticles was of 3.53 eV. Excitingly, the powdered sample in this work had an average inhibition zone diameter of 4.59 mm for Candida albicans fungus. Therefore, the prepared zinc oxide nanoparticles exhibited imperative materials for antifungal agent.