Spectroscopic Investigation of the Evolution of Fractal Nanoobjects in Combined Zinc Oxide Sol-Gel Systems

A method has been proposed for determining the concentration and average size of nanoparticles of a fractal nature that are formed and dynamically change during the hydrolytic polycondensation reaction in combined ZnO sol-gel systems. It has been established that the use of the Smoluchowski model of fast coagulation together with the analysis of the intensity of characteristic bands and absorption peaks in the IR spectra makes it possible to obtain a verifiable assessment of the evolutionary processes occurring when mixing sols with different maturation times. It is shown that the proposed spectroscopic patterns relating the concentration or average size of nanoparticles, as well as transmittance, are in agreement with experimental data from scanning electron microscopy.