Abstract
In this paper we report a low cost, simple, electrochemical method for large-area growth of single crystal ZnO nanorods. The method utilizes a metallic zinc foil as the source of the necessary zinc ions for ZnO growth on indium-doped tin oxide (ITO) glass slides. The method is thoroughly discussed and investigated varying all the parameters involved. The resulting ZnO nanorods are highly oriented along c-axis and densely packed, while their length and diameter can be tuned by varying the growth parameters. Two different types of seed layers on the ITO glass slides are tested. A seed layer made by spin coating of ZnO nanoparticles results in a twofold increase of the ZnO nanorod surface density as compared with a ZnO thin film seed layer by physical vapor deposition. Additionally, the effect of oxygen supply during electrodeposition was investigated as a crucial regulatory parameter not only for the geometrical and topological characteristics of the ZnO nano-arrays but for their physical properties as well.
Highlights
Among the transparent oxides, ZnO stands of great importance
The ZnO growth mechanism could be described by the following steps: Zinc-formamide complexes are formed in the vicinity of the Zn foil, counter-electrode and are subsequently transferred to the substrate, working electrode, under the applied electrical field
It should be noted that the synthesized nanorod arrays display lateral homogeneity across the whole substrate area, i.e., about 33 × 10 mm2, making this growth method promising to be upscaled to larger areas
Summary
It is a wide and direct bandgap (Eg = 3.23–3.42 eV), II–VI semiconductor, with relatively large exciton binding energy (about 60 meV) at room temperature and high electron mobility [1]. The main advantage of electrodeposition in general is its simplicity, while, varying at will the electrochemical parameters affects the structural as well as the physical properties of the resultant ZnO layers [8,9,10,11,12]. The use of chloride or nitrate salts may result in intentional [14,15] or unintentional [16] incorporation of anions impurities such as Cl- in the ZnO structure affecting ZnO growth and electronic properties
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