Comparative Study of Structural, Optical, and Morphological Properties of SILAR and Electrodeposition Grown ZnO and Al:ZnO Nanostructures

Abstract

ZnO nanorods and Al:ZnO nanosheets have been successfully synthesized via two chemical methods: electrodeposition and successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR). The present study reports their structural, morphological, and optical properties. All samples annealed at 350°C were polycrystalline, with a hexagonal wurtzite structure. The morphological analyses show two different nanostructures of hexagonal nanorods and hexagonal nanosheets which are attributed to pure ZnO and Al:ZnO, respectively. Moreover, the average size and the vertical orientation of the obtained nanorods and nanosheets depend on the used synthesis methods. Furthermore, the UV-Vis analyses performed on the obtained films revealed transmittance over 70% in the UV-Vis region. In fact, the electrodeposition method allows depositing a ZnO film with a transparence higher than 13% compared to that obtained via SILAR method. The obtained band gap values are approximately 3.25 and 3.28 eV for the ZnO synthesized by electrodeposition and SILAR, respectively.