Controlling Diameter, Length and Characterization of ZnO Nanorods by Simple Hydrothermal Method for Solar Cells

Ahmed H Kurda,Naser M Ahmed,Yousif M Hassan

doi:10.4236/wjnse.2015.51005

Ahmed H Kurda, Naser M Ahmed + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4236/wjnse.2015.51005

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Abstract

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods have been synthesized by solution processing hydrothermal method in low temperature using the spin coating technique. Zinc acetate dehydrate, Zinc nitrate hexahydrate and hexamethylenetetramine were used as a starting material. The ZnO seed layer was first deposited by spin coated of ethanol zinc acetate dehydrate solution on a glass substrate. ZnO nanorods were grown on the ZnO seed layer from zinc nitrate hexahydrate and hexamethylene-tetramine solution, and their diameters, lengths were controlled by precursor concentration and development time. From UV-Visible spectrometry the optical band gap energy of ZnO nanorods was calculated to be 3.3 eV. The results of X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) showed the highly oriented nature of ZnO nanorods the hardest (002) peak reflects that c-axis elongated nanorods are oriented normal to the glass substrate. The Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) was employed to measure both of average diameter of ZnO nanorods, Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX) is used to identify the elemental present and to determine the element composition in the samples.

Highlights

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is inexpensive n-type of semiconductor compound, which has shown promise for commercial applications in photovoltaic cells, [1] nanosensors, [2] [3] photocatalysise, [4] nanolasers [5] and light emitting diodes [6]
The growth of ZnO nanorods, diameter and length are controlled by changing the solution concentration and immersion time in equimolar of zinc nitrate hexahydrate and hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) in deionized water at a 90 ̊ C and their morphologies, preferential orientation and optical properties were examined in particular
The average diameter and length of the ZnO nanorods were measured by using the field emission scanning electron microscope Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) (Model: FEI Nova NanoSEM 450)

Summary

Introduction

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is inexpensive n-type of semiconductor compound, which has shown promise for commercial applications in photovoltaic cells, [1] nanosensors, [2] [3] photocatalysise, [4] nanolasers [5] and light emitting diodes [6]. (2015) Controlling Diameter, Length and Characterization of ZnO Nanorods by Simple Hydrothermal Method for Solar Cells. Nanostructured ZnO is fabricated using various thin film techniques as spray pyrolysis [7], sputtering [8], metal organic chemical vapor deposition [9] and hydrothermal method [10]. The hydrothermal method offers other advantages such as high surface area morphology at low crystallization temperature, the easy control of chemical components and fabrication of thin film at low cost for elucidating the structure and optical properties of ZnO nanorods. The growth of ZnO nanorods, diameter and length are controlled by changing the solution concentration and immersion time in equimolar of zinc nitrate hexahydrate and hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) in deionized water at a 90 ̊ C and their morphologies, preferential orientation and optical properties were examined in particular

Experimental Work

Optical Properties of ZnO Nanorods

Structural Analysis of ZnO Nanorods

Morphological Analysis of ZnO Nanorods