Effect of pullulan amount on ZnO NPs via sol–gel technique

Abstract

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) is a very attractive materials due to their favourable properties that can be applied in various applications. These desirable characteristics of ZnO NPs can be tailored based on the synthesis process. With the increasing focus towards environmentally friendly process, green synthesis has been gaining popularity as the preferable approach. This study focused on the ZnO NPs’ synthesis through sol–gel process in the presence biopolymer, pullulan. The impact of pullulan’s amount on the ZnO NPs’ characteristics were studied. Based on the results obtained, the general trend observed was that the particles size decreased with increasing pullulan amount. The determined band gap of ZnO NPs was found to be approximately between 3.26 and 3.28 eV. Overall, these results indicate that the properties of ZnO NPs is dependent on pullulan amount. These green synthesized ZnO NPs can be applied across various fields such as pharmaceuticals, cosmeceuticals, environmental and others.