Synthesis of Template-free Flower-like ZnO Nanorods using a Simple Chemical Bath Technique

Abstract

Flower-like ZnO nanorods were successfully synthesised using a template-free, low-temperature chemical bath deposition method. The effects of growth time on the structural, morphological, and vibrational properties of flower-like zinc oxide were investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicated that the crystallite size and density of flower-like ZnO nanorods increased with increasing growth time. Raman spectroscopy confirmed the existence of specific Raman modes that correspond to the wurtzite structure of ZnO. In addition, Raman measurements revealed that increased growth time increases the Raman modes intensity of the flower-like ZnO nanorods. Moreover, the measurements of the Au/ZnO nanorods/FTO Schottky diode showed that all devices functioned as Schottky diodes and rectifying; however, their ideality factor was greater than 1. In addition to the ideality factor, the Schottky barrier height was calculated and slightly increased with growth time. The values of Schottky barrier height obtained were 0.502 eV, 0.523 eV, 0.516 eV and 0.529 eV for samples grown at 1, 2, 3 and 4 h, respectively.