Effect of F incorporation on physical and optical properties of hydrothermally grown ZnO nanorods

Abstract

F-doped ZnO nanorods were synthesized via hydrothermal process with variation of Fluorine doping contents (0-10%) starting from zinc oxide thin film as a seeding layer for nanorod growth. The zinc oxide seeding thin film was prepared by sol-gel spin coating at 2000 rpm on glass substrate using zinc acetate precursor with annealing at 500°C in air for 2 h. Ammonium fluoride (NH4F) was used as F doping precursor. The properties of F-doped ZnO nanorods were characterized by field emission electron microscope (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and UV-Visible spectrophotometer. Corresponding results indicated that growth of ZnO:F nanorods with good crystallinity and grown in (002) plane in undoped ZnO and F-doped ZnO 5%. The average size diameter of undoped and F-doped ZnO nanorods at 3%, 5% and 10% are 56, 96, 70 and 103 nm, respectively. From cross section images the average length of undoped and F-doped ZnO nanorods at 3%, 5% and 10% are 400, 375, 199 and 478 nm, respectively. The transmittance spectra shows moderate transparency (<80%) of the ZnO nanorod film in visible region with corresponding band gap range of 3.25-3.28 eV.