Estimation of particle size distribution of nanoparticles from electrical characteristics

An indirect method of estimation of size distribution of nanoparticles in a nanocomposite is proposed in this paper. The present approach exploits DC electrical current–voltage characteristics (CVC) of ZnO nanocomposite specimen in bio-polymer background. The nature of DC CVC is found to be oscillatory with respect to applied voltage. The nature of CVC is a consequence of Coulomb blockade (CB) phenomena of electrical conduction through a tiny nanoparticle. Considering the ZnO nanocomposites to be spherical, Coulomb-blockade model of quantum dot is applied here. The size distribution of particle is estimated from that model and compared with the results obtained from AFM and XRD analyses. The results from CVC are found to be consistent with these conventional microscopic results.