Effect of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) capping agent on structural, photoluminescent and photometric properties of ZnO nanoparticles

ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) with the hexagonal wurtzite structure were successfully synthesized by the co-precipitation route, and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) was used as a capping agent. The studied results show that the PVA capping agent affects the optical and photometric characteristics of ZnO NPs. PVA-ZnO NPs show the blue emission, the green emission, and the co-emission of yellow and red emissions. The PVA-ZnO NPs possessed the maximum value of the luminous efficacy of optical radiation (LER) LER = 389.52 lm/Wotp and the scotopic/photopic (S/P) S/P = 0.93 at the 1.0 g of PVA, respectively. The color correlated temperature (CCT) and the color CIE (x, y) coordinates are about CCT ≈ 4500 K and (0.36, 0.37), respectively. •ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) with the hexagonal wurtzite structure were successfully synthesized by the co-precipitation route, and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) was used as a capping agent.•The PVA capping agent affects the optical and photometric characteristics of ZnO NPs. PVA-ZnO NPs show the blue emission, the green emission, and the co-emission of yellow and red emissions.•The PVA-ZnO NPs possessed the maximum value of the luminous efficacy of optical radiation (LER) LER = 389.52 lm/Wotp and the scotopic/photopic (S/P) S/P = 0.93 at the 1.0 g of PVA, respectively. The color correlated temperature (CCT) and the color CIE (x, y) coordinates are about CCT ≈ 4500 K and (0.36, 0.37), respectively.