Structural, morphological and optical properties of sol gel processed CdZnO nanostructured films: effect of precursor solvents

Abstract

Cadmium-doped zinc oxide (CZO) has been the potential candidate for the fabrication of low-cost transparent conductors having applications in energy conversion devices such as thin-film solar cells and light-emitting diodes. In this work, the effect of different precursor solvents on the structural, morphological, and optical properties of sol-gel spin-coated CZO films was investigated. The X-ray diffraction study has revealed the hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure with crystallite size ranging from 45 to 49 nm for these films. The surface morphology of these films was analyzed by the atomic force microscopy. The precursor solvent effect was also analyzed using the UV-vis spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopic techniques. All the prepared films show the larger values of optical transparency (>80%) along with the shift in the fundamental absorption edge and the direct optical gap was found to be between 3.14 and 3.19 eV. The highly intense band edge emission for the sample was synthesized using the 2-ethoxyethanol while the presence of other defect-related bands in the other samples has been observed. The change in the precursor solvent volatility influences the crystal structure to favor the change in the density/type of defect states in the bandgap is used to discuss the present results. The formation of highly porous films will be suitable for gas sensor applications while the larger value of optical transparency and lower surface roughness have their probable application as the transparent electrodes in optoelectronics.

A Review of the Synthesis and Photoluminescence Properties of Hybrid ZnO and Carbon Nanomaterials

“…On the other hand, ZnO has a superior advantage in nanotechnology as it is easy to synthesize as nanostructures [1,2]. During the last decade, many reports have been published on the synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles [3], nanoflakes [4], hexagonal prismatic rods [5], nanoflowers [6], nanorods [7], nanopillars, or nanosheets using multiple methods of synthesis [8]. These studies have shown that the morphology of ZnO also plays a very important role in determining the physical properties of the material.…”

Effect of annealing temperature on structure-property correlations in Zn2SnO4 nanostructured films for optoelectronics

“…A possible reason for a decrease in lattice parameter could be related to the decomposition of Zn 2 SnO 4 phase into the grains of ZnSnO 3 phase formed at high annealing temperature. Also, the crystallite size is calculated using the Debye-Scherrer formula [22,27]:…”

“…The precursor solvent such as methanol, ethanol, isopropanol and ethoxyethanol have found to greatly influence the structure property relationship for sol gel deposited films [21][22][23]. The use of different solvents has influence on the transmittance and average grain size of the sol gel coated metal oxide films [21,22]. The use of different solvents viz.…”

Effect of Laser Pulses on Characterization of Zincoxide Thin Film Prepared by PLD

“…It has been attracted strong schooling effort for single optical and electrical features, and considerable applications in ultraviolet light emitters, transparent electronics, piezoelectric devices, gas sensors, spin electronics, solar cell and thin film transistors [3]. ZnO is commercially obtainable with feature like as relatively soft setback ZnOis not poisonous nature, environment-amicable, rise resistance to radiation harm, and rise thermal and chemical stabilization [4,5,6]. Using (PLD) technique become making of risefineness ZnO films at minimum heat than different ways , because the ablated particles were rise with laser-produced plume of plasma [6,7].…”