Zinc-oxide nanowires electrochemically grown onto sol-gel spin-coated seed layers

The electrochemical deposition of ZnO nanowires (NW) was optimized by growing onto a previously deposited seed layer. The ZnO seed layer was prepared by a sol-gel process from different precursor solutions and deposited onto FTO/glass by spin coating. Afterwards, NW were electrochemically grown onto those seed layers. The electrolyte was an aqueous solution of the Zn ⁺² precursor (1 mM zinc acetate) and a supporting electrolyte (0.1 M sodium acetate), saturated with bubbling oxygen. The films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and optical transmittance. The XRD measurements show typical diffraction pattern of ZnO wurtzite structure. The SEM micrographs show the presence of smooth NW with hexagonal sections with diameters ranging from 40 to 250 nm. The optical transmittance reveals the presence of ZnO with bandgap energy between 3.23 and 3.29 eV. These spectra show a monotonically increasing transmittance from the UV into the red part of the spectrum. This feature may be originated in the dispersion of light at the NW and can be used to enhance below-gap absorption.