Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a common material used in paints. It also turns out that its electrical properties make it suitable for making sensors, transistors, solar cells, etc. Recently we reported the world's smallest ZnO particles! These tiny chunks of ZnO are merely 2 nm in radius! By the way, this means that these particles have a radius that is 37500 times smaller than the nominal breadth of human hair (75 micrometers).

It so happens that We are also the first ones to report a curious phenomenon called digestive ripening (DR), in this ZnO. DR is a fascinating process wherein particles of different sizes evolve together, to give rise to particles of same size! This phenomenon has been reported in a few other material sustems; its fundamental reason remains a puzzle till this day (although there exist some nice theories, one of which is consistent with our observations).

Our discovery of DR in ZnO is the first report of DR in any oxide material; it also turns out to be the fastest and the lowest temperature DR reported so far! What is mor.... we achieve this using simple kitchen chemistry!

Ref: Ceramic International (2014) (DOI: 10.1016/j.ceramint.2014.05.116)