title: Hydrothermal synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles using rice as soft biotemplate.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Rice as a renewable, abundant bio-resource with unique characteristics can be used as a bio-template to synthesize various functional nanomaterials. Therefore, the effect of uncooked rice flour as bio-template on physico-chemical properties, especially the morphology of zinc oxide nanostructures was investigated in this study. The ZnO particles were synthesized through hydrothermal-biotemplate method using zinc acetate-sodium hydroxide and uncooked rice flour at various ratios as precursors at 120°C for 18 hours.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results indicate that rice as a bio-template can be used to modify the shape and size of zinc oxide particles. Different morphologies, namely flake-, flower-, rose-, star- and rod-like structures were obtained with particle size at micro- and nanometer range. Pore size and texture of the resulting zinc oxide particles were found to be template-dependent and the resulting specific surface area enhanced compared to the zinc oxide synthesized without rice under the same conditions. However, optical property particularly the band gap energy is generally quite similar.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pure zinc oxide crystals were successfully synthesized using rice flour as biotemplate at various ratios of zinc salt to rice. The size- and shape-controlled capability of rice to assemble the ZnO particles can be employed for further useful practical applications.
authors.affiliation: Material Synthesis and Characterization Laboratory (MSCL), Institute of Advanced Technology (ITMA), Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Donya
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ramimoghadam
authors.affiliation: Research center for Catalysis Science and Technology PutraCAT, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Mohd Zobir
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Bin Hussein
authors.affiliation: Research center for Catalysis Science and Technology PutraCAT, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Yun Hin
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Taufiq-Yap
keywords: Biotemplate; Hydrothermal method; Rice; Soft templating; Starch; Zinc oxide nanoparticles
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