Effect of zinc acetate dihydrate concentration on morphology of ZnO seed layer and ZnO nanorods grown by hydrothermal method

• Published in: Colloid and interface science communications 2020-09, Vol.38, p.100312, Article 100312
• Main Authors: Rajamanickam, Suvindraj, Mohammad, Sabah M., Hassan, Z.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Drop casting method; FESEM; Zinc acetate dihydrate; ZnO nanorods; ZnO seed layer
• ISSN: 2215-0382; 2215-0382
• DOI: 10.1016/j.colcom.2020.100312

Fine-tuning zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures using a simple methodology will give benefits in designing efficient optoelectronic devices. In this paper, the effect of zinc acetate dihydrate (ZAD) concentration on the deposition of the ZnO seed layer by drop-casting and the growth of ZnO nanorods (ZnO NRs) was studied. As the concentration of ZAD increases, the more aggregation of ZnO nucleation centers in the seed layer. Growth of ZnO NRs using concentration 0.01 M results in the highest aspect ratio and nanorod density due to the aggregation process resulting in more nucleation sites with smaller grain sizes. X-ray diffraction (XRD) done on the four samples show that 0.001 M concentration demonstrates the highest intensity of vertically aligned (002) ZnO NRs. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra show ZnO NRs grown using 0.01 M ZAD solution exhibits the highest intensity in near band edge (NBE) emission compared to other samples. [Display omitted] •Effect of different zinc acetate dihydrate concentrations on morphology of ZnO seed layer and ZnO nanorods was studied.•Zinc oxide honeycomb-like nanopatterns were formed as the seed layer before the growth of zinc oxide nanorods.•0.01 M ZAD solution gives the best results in aspect ratio and optical properties of ZnO nanorods from 4 concentrations used.