Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films were potentiostatically deposited on indium tin oxide substrates. The influence of the doping level of the ZnO:Al films was investigated. The results of the X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy analysis revealed that the structural properties of the AZO films were found polycrystalline with a hexagonal wurtzite-type structure along the (002) plane. The grain size of the AZO films was observed as approximately 3 lm in the film doping with 4 mol% ZnO:Al concentration. The thin films also exhibited an optical transmittance as high as 90 % in the wavelength range of 100-1,000 nm. The optical band gap increased from 3.33 to 3.45 eV. Based on the Hall studies, the lowest resistivity (4.78 9 10-3 X cm) was observed in the film doping with 3 mol% ZnO:Al concentration. The sheet resistant, carrier concentration and Hall mobility values were found as 10.78 X/ square, 9.03 9 10 18 cm-3 and 22.01 cm 2 /v s, respectively, which showed improvements in the properties of AZO thin films. The ZnO:Al thin films were used as a buffer layer in thin-film solar cells with the structure of soda-lime glass/Mo/Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 /ZnS/ ZnO/Al grid. The best solar cell efficiency was 2.3 % with V OC of 0.430 V, J SC of 8.24 mA cm-2 and FF of 68.1 %.

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SummaryWe report a facile synthesis of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod arrays using an optimized, chemical bath deposition method on glass, PET and Si substrates. The morphological and structural properties of the ZnO nanorod arrays were investigated using various techniques such as field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements, which revealed the formation of dense ZnO nanorods with a single crystal, hexagonal wurtzite structure. The aspect ratio of the single-crystal ZnO nanorods and the growth rate along the (002) direction was found to be sensitive to the substrate type. The lattice constants and the crystallite size of the fabricated ZnO nanorods were calculated based on the XRD data. The obtained results revealed that the increase in the crystallite size is strongly associated with the growth conditions with a minor dependence on the type of substrate. The Raman spectroscopy measurements confirmed the existence of a compressive stress in the fabricated ZnO nanorods. The obtained results illustrated that the growth of high quality, single-crystal ZnO nanorods can be realized by adjusting the synthesis conditions.

In this research, nanocomposite solid polymer electrolytes (NCSPEs) comprising methylcellulose/pectin (MC/PC) blend as host polymer, ammonium chloride (NH4Cl) as an ion source, and zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) as nanofillers were synthesized via a solution cast methodology. Techniques such as Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) were employed to characterize the electrolyte. FTIR confirmed that the polymers, NH4Cl salt, and ZnO nanofiller interact with one another appreciably. EIS demonstrated the feasibility of achieving a conductivity of 3.13 × 10−4 Scm−1 for the optimum electrolyte at room temperature. Using the dielectric formalism technique, the dielectric properties, energy modulus, and relaxation time of NH4Cl in MC/PC/NH4Cl and MC/PC/NH4Cl/ZnO systems were determined. The contribution of chain dynamics and ion mobility was acknowledged by the presence of a peak in the imaginary portion of the modulus study. The LSV measurement yielded 4.55 V for the comparatively highest conductivity NCSPE.

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