Properties of zinc titanates synthesized by microwave assisted hydrothermal method

Zinc titanates are compounds that have shown great application versatility, including in the field of semiconductors. Solid state reactions, the polymeric precursor method and the hydrothermal method are the most mentioned synthesis of these compounds in the literature. In the present work, we use microwave assisted hydrothermal method (MAH) to synthesize zinc titanate and evaluate its potential for solar cell applications through structural and optical characterization techniques. The synthesized samples were also subjected to a variable temperature heat treatment in the range of 500 degrees C-800 degrees C. The analysis showed that the crystallization of the material starts at 500 degrees C and that samples submitted to temperatures of 600 degrees C-800 degrees C showed the formation of two phases of zinc titanates, being a cubic phase of ZnTiO3, considered rare in the literature, predominant up to a temperature of 800 degrees C. The optical characterization, based on the techniques of photoluminescence spectroscopy and UV-Visible spectroscopy, showed that the photoluminescent activity and the energy of the band gap increased with the increase of the temperature of the heat treatment, having the highest response in 700 degrees C, facts that can be linked to the predominant formation of the cubic phase of ZnTiO3 and simultaneous of the cubic and rhombohedral phases of ZnTiO3 at 700 and 800 degrees C. Finally, we highlight as the most important results, the fact that it was possible to obtain these titanates at a temperature lower than that reported in the literature, and that the heat-treated sample at 500 degrees C is the one with the lowest energy expenditure to be synthesized and the one with the greatest potential for application in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC's).