Effect of Synthesis Method on the Nanostructures of Magnesium Oxide (MgO) and their Band Gap Energies

Magnesium oxide (MgO) is a metal oxide which has many applications in industry and can be synthesized by many different synthesis methods. In this study, MgO was synthesized by using two different methods which were sol-gel and solid-state reaction methods. Both samples were annealed at 800 oC for 24 hours and characterized by using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The band gap energies for both samples were determined by using UV-Vis NIR Spectroscopy. The band gap values of the samples are evaluated from the data. It was found that the band gap energies of the MgO using different synthesis route were not the same.