Growth of zinc oxide nanowires by equimolar solution technique on conducting substrates used for optical applications

Abstract

Zinc oxide nanorods were successfully fabricated on various substrates coated with metal oxide such as platinum and gold by aqueous solution method. The current research shows the influence of conducting substrates on surface morphology and its use for optical properties zinc oxide nanostructures. Samples were analyzed by energy dispersive (EDX), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) and UV-Visible spectroscopy (UV-vis). The fabricated zinc oxide nanorods exhibit excellent crystalline quality and hexagonal wurzite structure. The Zinc oxide nano-walls and nanorods have crystalline size from 30 to 35 nm. FE-SEM images shows that nanowires and nano-walls grown on metal oxide coated substrates have good hexagonal structure. The zinc oxide nanorods fabricated on Pt coated thin film were highly dense as compared to other substrates coated with metal oxide. The Pt lattice parameter is nearby to Zinc oxide as compared to gold. The value of optical band gap energy (Eg) of zinc oxide nanorods grown on metal oxide was approximated to 3.35 eV that have the nearest value to bulk 3.37 eV. This confirms that Zinc oxide nanorods synthesized by aqueous solution technique have characteristics similar to other conventional techniques either bulk size or thin film nanorods.