Date of Publication :20th April 2018

Abstract: Zinc oxide plays an important role in current industry due to its special characteristics such as anti-corrosion, antibacteria, has low electrons conductivity and excellent heat resistance. Therefore the objectives of this study, pure zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO) were successfully synthesized by a solution-free mechanochemical reaction using zinc acetate dihydrate and oxalic acid as the precursor. The as-prepared precursor was calcined at 500°C temperatures for 2h to form ZnO nanoparticles. The phase and structural transformations were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). FT-IR spectra of ZnO nanoparticles showed peaks in the region between 538 and 486cm-1 which corresponds to the stretching vibration of Zn – O band. The XRD studies showed a rather more crystalline behaviour of the nanoparticles and the grain size was calculated using Scherer’s formula and found to be 18nm. XRD spectra revealed that the ZnO crystal has a hexagonal wurtzite structure and the strongest three diffraction peaks at 2θ=31.88°, 34.61° and 36.29° which are in close agreement to the literature. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has been used to study the morphological features of the ZnO nanopowder. Result of EDAX (Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy) characterization shows that the ZnO nanoparticles has good purity (Zinc content of 49.84% and Oxygen content of 50.16%). The corrosion inhibition efficiency of the nanoparticles were calculated for mild steel in 0.1M HCl and 3.5% NaCl solution using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) and Polarization (Tafel) studies

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