Morphologies of Sol–Gel Derived Thin Films of ZnO Using Different Precursor Materials and their Nanostructures

<p>Abstract</p><p>We have shown that the morphological features of the sol&#8211;gel derived thin films of ZnO depend strongly on the choice of the precursor materials. In particular, we have used zinc nitrate and zinc acetate as the precursor materials. While the films using z...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chandra Sudhir, Bahadur Harish, Srivastava AK, Sharma RK
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2007-01-01
Series:Nanoscale Research Letters
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11671-007-9089-x
Description
Summary:<p>Abstract</p><p>We have shown that the morphological features of the sol&#8211;gel derived thin films of ZnO depend strongly on the choice of the precursor materials. In particular, we have used zinc nitrate and zinc acetate as the precursor materials. While the films using zinc acetate showed a smoother topography, those prepared by using zinc nitrate exhibited dendritic character. Both types of films were found to be crystalline in nature. The crystallite dimensions were confined to the nanoscale. The crystallite size of the nanograins in the zinc nitrate derived films has been found to be smaller than the films grown by using zinc acetate as the precursor material. Selected area electron diffraction patterns in the case of both the precursor material has shown the presence of different rings corresponding to different planes of hexagonal ZnO crystal structure. The results have been discussed in terms of the fundamental considerations and basic chemistry governing the growth kinetics of these sol&#8211;gel derived ZnO films with both the precursor materials.</p>
ISSN:1931-7573
1556-276X