Study the Effect of Annealing Process on Nanorods and Nanonails ZnO Thin Films Prepared by Hydrothermal Technique

Abstract

Wurtzite hexagonal Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoorods and nanonails arrays have been successfully fabricated and deposited on glass substrates pre-coated with ZnO seed layer using a simple hydrothermal method. The influence of annealing temperatures of on the morphological, structural and optical properties was studied. The size and shape of the nanostructures and the band gap energy depend on the deposition temperature of ZnO thin films have been studied. The optical energy band gaps of ZnO were calculated to be 3.25 eV and 3.26 eV for the samples annealed at 300°C and 350°C respectively. The XRD results show the formation of wurtzite hexagonal ZnO structures for nanonails and nanorods arrays with prominent (002) orientation. The c/a ratio of 1.6033 is close to the ideal value for hexagonal cell around 1.633. The transmittance of the films is about 80% in the visible range. The (EDX) analysis identified the pure ZnO phase with a ratio of Z:O = 1:1.