Synthesis of Zinc Oxide Thin Films by Modified Sol-Gel Route for Solar Water Splitting

Abstract

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is one of the promising candidates for solar water splitting application. Due to immerging of nanotechnology, ZnO nanostructures have been extensively studied and the properties are still under debate. Vertically aligned ZnO nanorods (NRs) offer higher surface-to-volume ration compared to other shapes and become the most seeked by researches ever since. The facile growth of vertically aligned ZnO NRs thin films out of two different zinc salt, namely , zinc acetate and zinc nitrate using the modified sol-gel route were performed with the assistant of ultrasonic rinse. Sonication of ZnO NRs thin films has significant improvement on the structural and optical properties. Several sonication periods have been employed to synthesize these ZnO NRs thin films. Deposited ZnO NRs films were characterized under FE-SEM, AFM, XRD and UV-Vis. Comparative investigation performed on acetate and nitrate precursor materials showed a preferable (0 0 2) with homogeneous surface formation single crystal growth, high quality transparent thin film of 3.23 eV in acetate precursor material at 30 seconds sonication were reported in this paper.