I have been working on gas sensing application. For the same I synthesized ZnO nanopowder and studies XRD, SEM, TEM etc. For the sensing application I coated the powder as thick film using Dr blade method by mixing with D.I water and dried for 3 hrs at 100o C. Since I made nanopowder as slurry with D.I water and dried again, will there be any changes in its XRD or SEM or other elemental characterizations?
Yes, drying the ZnO nanopowder mixture with D.I. water and coating it as a thick film using a doctor blade method may affect its XRD, SEM, and other characterizations due to changes in size, shape, crystal structure, and surface morphology of the particles. The drying process may result in the formation of new compounds or phases that were not present in the original material.
You can try performing these characterizations again after the coating process to see if there are any changes, and to determine whether these changes are significant and may impact the gas sensing performance of the coated film.
Maybe after the drying process an agglomeration of nanoparticles can occur, so you can see differences in the SEM micrographs. I do not think that a so low temperature can produce changes in crystallite sizes (that you determine by XRD), nor in chemical composition, because ZnO should be insoluble in water.
Due to reduced oxidation during the drying process, the XRD patterns may exhibit slight alterations. Nevertheless, Prof. Marcella Bini has indicated that recrystallization is highly unlikely at the relatively low temperature of 100°C. Additionally, when conducting TEM analysis, the film must be peeled off and placed on the grid, implying that the same nanopowder will be obtained, and the images may not vary significantly. On the other hand, SEM may reveal nanostructure agglomeration resulting from their mixture with DI water, but the shapes of the nanostructures are more likely to remain unchanged.
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