Controlled preparation of hollow zinc oxide microspheres from aqueous solution using hexamethylenetetramine and cysteine

Abstract

Zinc oxide particles were prepd. by pptn. from an aq. soln. of zinc nitrate tetrahydrate, R-(+)-cysteine and hexamethylenetetramine. Hollow microspheres of ZnO-cysteine hybrid material with a diam. of ~1µm and a wall thickness ~50 nm were obtained. After heating <=850 Deg pure ZnO microspheres of roughly the same size were formed. The particles were characterized by XRD, SEM, FTIR, and TGA.