Rietveld refinement analysis on the effects of annealing temperature on ZnO microrods

Abstract

Hydrothermally prepared ZnO microrods samples were prepared at two different annealing temperatures of 200°C and 400°C. We sought to find the effects of different annealing temperatures on lattice parameters, structure, and crystalline samples. The XRD data of the ZnO samples are collected and processed using Profex. We found out that different annealing temperatures did not affect the crystal structure of ZnO. The crystallite size, however, increased with increased annealing temperature. Limitations of using Profex in the structural analysis are also discussed. Other characterization methods are still essential to validate the results from the Rietveld refinement. The significance of these findings is important in future endeavors in research for ZnO synthesis and fabrication.