Abstract
Intrinsic and dandelion-like microflower nano-rod structures of boron-doped ZnO thin films were synthesized with an ecofriendly and cost-effective chemical bath deposition technique from an aqueous solution of zinc nitrate hexahdyrate [Zn(NO3)2.6H2O] as a precursor solution and boric acid as a doping solution. The boron concentrations were 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 1.0, 3.0, 5.0, and 7.0 by volume. Scanning electron micrographs showed that doping with boron appears to hinder the vertical alignment of crystallites. Additionally, independent hexagonal nano-rod structures were observed to coalesce together to form dandelion-like structures on the film’s surface. The atomic ratio of the elements was determined via the X-ray photoemission spectrum technique. There were no substantial changes in the vibration structure of the film upon doping in terms of the Raman spectra. The optical band gap of ZnO (3.28 eV) decreased with B doping. The band gap of the ZnO:B film varied between 3.18 and 3.22 eV. The activation energy of the ZnO was calculated as 0.051 eV, whereas that of the ZnO:B film containing 1.0% B was calculated as 0.013 eV at low temperatures (273–348 K), versus 0.072 eV and 0.183 eV at high temperatures (348–523 K), respectively. Consequently, it can be interpreted that the 1% B-doped ZnO, which has the lowest activation energy at both low and high temperatures, may find some application areas such as in sensors for gases and in solar cells.
Highlights
Transparent conductive oxide (TCO) thin films, especially the compound semiconductor forms of the Group II–VI elements have been an interesting research topic due to their simple and cost-effective production processes [1]
The X-ray diffraction patterns were recorded to investigate the effects of boron doping on the structural properties of zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films
ZnO and B-doped (0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 1.0, 3.0, 5.0, 7.0 v/v%) ZnO films were deposited on glass substrates using the chemical bath deposition technique
Summary
Transparent conductive oxide (TCO) thin films, especially the compound semiconductor forms of the Group II–VI elements (such as ZnO and CdO, and non-oxide films such as ZnS, CdS, ZnSe, CdSe, ZnTe, and CdTe) have been an interesting research topic due to their simple and cost-effective production processes [1]. Among the TCOs, zinc oxide (ZnO) is popular because of its interesting structural, chemical, optical, and electrical properties [1,2,3] It was one of the first studied wide band gap semiconductors with respect to its surface properties, optical properties, and gas sensing properties [1,2,3,4]. Its practical application areas include light-emitting diodes, ultraviolet photodetectors, solar cells and collectors, electrochromic devices, gas sensors, hydrogen production and surface acoustic wave devices [1,9,12,14,15,16,18,19,20]
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