Tracking the formation of nano-sized zinc oxide from zinc peroxide by in situ XAS and XRD

In this paper we show how the formation of zinc oxide from zinc peroxide takes place during thermal decomposition, through a combination of X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD). The time-resolved study allowed us to follow the changes in both the local structure of the material, in particular the conversion of octahedral Zn-O coordination to tetrahedral one through EXAFS and XANES analysis and at the same time the particle growth using both EXAFS and diffraction. Multi-cluster analysis provided information on the phase changes which could be cross-correlated with diffraction results which suggests an abrupt change in the long range coordination followed by a slow growth of zinc oxide NPs. This study allowed us to gain a detailed understanding of zinc peroxide decomposition leading to the formation of zinc oxide.