The effect of silver doped in zinc oxide nanorods on titanium dioxide seeded substrate synthesized by binary solution technique

Abstract

Non-doped and Ag-doped ZnO nanorods were fabricated on TiO2 seed layer by using two methods (binary method), a spin-coating technique for the deposition of TiO2 seed layer and a solution-immersion method for the growth of ZnO nanorods. Varied quantities, 0.5 at%, 1.0 at%, 1.5 at%, 2.0 at% and 2.5 at%, of Ag-doped ZnO/TiO2 had an effect on the morphological, optical and structural properties of ZnO, and this was investigated by using FESEM, UV–vis and XRD. FESEM images revealed the morphology as nanorods and 1.5 at% of Ag dopant produced the smallest nanorod diameter. UV–vis and XRD results also indicate that 1.5 at% of Ag dopant showed the highest absorbance and highest intensity, which supports the FESEM results. Thus, 1.5 at% Ag dopant showed very good potential to produce a good optical property due to high crystallinity, small nanorod size with high absorption in the UV region compared to the other samples.