The effects of solvents on the highly oriented ZnO films prepared using sol–gel method

Abstract The effects of solvents in ZnO precursor solutions on highly oriented ZnO films is studied in this work. Three different solvents, including ethanol, isopropanol and 2-methoxyethanol, are used for the preparation of ZnO film on fused quartz wafer substrates in this study. The structural pro...
Ausführliche Beschreibung

Abstract The effects of solvents in ZnO precursor solutions on highly oriented ZnO films is studied in this work. Three different solvents, including ethanol, isopropanol and 2-methoxyethanol, are used for the preparation of ZnO film on fused quartz wafer substrates in this study. The structural properties of ZnO films are investigated by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy analysis. It is found that ZnO film formed using 2-methoxyethanol precursor solution shows a strong preferred orientation and has the smoothest surface among the films. The properties of ZnO sol solutions are also studied using the thermal gravimetric-differential thermal analysis and ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy. The absorbance spectrum of the sol using 2-methoxyethanol as solvent shows an apparent ZnO absorbance edge while the others do not, which means ZnO nano-particles are formed in the sol. The mechanism of the formation of highly oriented ZnO films using different solvents is also discussed in this paper. Ausführliche Beschreibung