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Solvent dependent growth of fibrous and non-fibrous nanocrystalline thin films of ZnO

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Abstract

Zinc oxide thin films were prepared from three different solvents using the sol–gel technique. Zinc acetate was used as the source of Zn, and the solvents ethanol, 2-methoxy ethanol and ethylene glycol were used to prepare the sols. ZnO thin films were deposited on glass microslides by pre-heating dip coated sol layers, following which they were finally annealed at 450 °C for half an hour. The films were characterized using structural, morphological and optical techniques. XRD studies show that the films grown from all the three solvents were single phase, highly oriented (along the c axis) ZnO having the wurzite structure. Optical transmission and photoluminescence spectra confirm the good quality of the ZnO films. SEM and AFM images show that the surfaces of the ZnO films, obtained using the first two (more volatile) solvents, consist of striations or ridges of height around 100–400 nm and are made up of nanoparticles 20–40 nm in size. The surfaces of the films produced from the less volatile third solvent are however smooth and devoid of striations although they are also covered with nanoparticles.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the University Grants Commision (UGC), New Delhi, India through Project No. 41-850/2012(SR) for which the authors are grateful. The authors are grateful to Prof. Ramesh Chandra, Mr. S.D.Sharma and Mr. Shiv kumar, IIC, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee for the SEM and XRD facilities. We are thankful to Dr. Sanjeev Agarwal, Department of physics, Kurukshetra University for the photoluminescence experiments and to Mr. Jagtar Singh, SAIF, Punjab University Chandigarh for providing us the XRD facilities. We are also thankful to the Electron Microscopy Lab, Jiwaji University, for the TEM studies.

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  1. School of Studies in Physics, Jiwaji University, Gwalior, 474 011, India

    Vikas Thakur, U. P. Verma & Poolla Rajaram

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  1. Vikas Thakur
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  2. U. P. Verma
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Correspondence to Poolla Rajaram.

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Thakur, V., Verma, U.P. & Rajaram, P. Solvent dependent growth of fibrous and non-fibrous nanocrystalline thin films of ZnO. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 66, 280–287 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-013-3005-x

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