Morphological analysis and its effect on the optical properties of carbon nanospheres as a function of synthesis time

This work presents the effect of synthesis time on morphology and its influence on the optical properties of microwave-assisted carbon nanospheres. To analyze the correlation between the synthesis time and the growth in size of the nanospheres, the morphology of the nanostructures was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Their optical properties were analyzed by UV-Vis spectrophotometry, and the Tauc method was used to estimate the optical band gap. The results reveal that the time variation in the synthesis does have a significant influence on the size, shape, and amount of sample obtained. The optical properties presented slight modifications. With these results, we can provide an easy reproducibility of simple and inexpensive methods to optimize the growth of carbonbased nanoparticles, which can bring advances in the synthesis of materials and improvements in their optoelectronic applications.