Fabrication and investigation of zinc oxide nanorods doped with molybdenum via ultrasonic spray pyrolysis

Abstract

Molybdenum ions with high valence states (Mo6+) can contribute to electrical conductivity and optical transmittance. For this reason, zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods doped with molybdenum metal were fabricated on a glass substrate by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis method. The doping concentrations were between 0–10 mol%. The crystallographic properties of the resulting ZnO samples were examined by the X‐ray diffraction (XRD) technique. According to the XRD analysis, it was found that the lattice structure of the samples belonged to the hexagonal (wurtzite) unit cell. The XRD results indicated that the crystals grow in the c‐axis (002) direction. The morphological features of the obtained thin films were studied by field emission scanning electron microscopy. The energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy results displayed that the Mo ions were in the ZnO lattice. Four point probe method was used to determine the electrical conductivity properties of the samples. The 10% mol doped sample has the highest conductivity with values of between 1.58 × 10−9 and 1.58 × 10−6 (ohm‐cm)−1. The optical transmittances of the samples were measured at wavelengths between 300 and 1000 nm. It was observed that the produced films had high optical transparency which was approximately 85%.