A Study on the Properties of Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Surfactant-Assisted Zinc Oxide Thin Films Doped with Molybdenum

In this article, we focused on studying the characteristics of sodium dodecyl sulfate-assisted zinc oxide materials synthesised using molybdenum as a dopant at varying concentrations of 0 M, 0.3 M and 0.5 M. The structural, morphological, elemental and optical characterisations of the synthesised films were studied using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometry, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and an ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer. Nanorod morphology yielded a hexagonal wurtzite structure from the morphological and structural results. Plots from energy dispersive X-rays confirmed the presence of basic elemental constituents: zinc, oxygen and molybdenum. The optical results gave high absorbance and reduced reflectance trends for the doped samples towards lower wavelength regions. The undoped, 0.3 M and 0.5 M molybdenum-doped zinc oxide films recorded energy band gap values of 3.70 eV, 3.84 eV and 3.97 eV respectively. The prepared zinc oxide films would be useful in solar cell and optoelectronic devices.