Influences of Stirring Speed and Post Annealing Temperature on the Properties of Zinc Oxide Colloid Prepared by Sol-Gel Spin Coating Method

Abstract

Zinc oxide (ZnO) colloid has drawn significant attention recently due to its wide range of potential applications such as photonic crystals, solar cells, sensors, and other optical devices. In this work, low cost sol-gel spin coating technique was employed to synthesis ZnO colloid. The influences of stirring speed and post annealing temperature on the properties of ZnO colloid was investigated. The structural and optical properties of ZnO colloid was characterized using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometer, respectively. Subsequently, Tauc method was used to estimate the optical band gap of the ZnO colloid based on the optical transmittance data. The effects of the stirring speed and post annealing temperature on the structural and optical properties of ZnO colloid are revealed and discussed in this paper. It was found that ZnO colloid prepared by the stirring speed of 500rpm and 400°C post annealing temperature demonstrates the best dispersity quality of colloid system.