Paper TF-ThP8
Effect of Applied Voltage on the Structural and Morphological Properties of Electrodeposited ZnO Films

Thursday, October 22, 2015, 6:00 pm, Room Hall 3

ZnO is a widely used and produced n-type semiconductor material which can be obtained by several deposition techniques. Among them electrochemical deposition technique is one of the most promising technique for depositing ZnO because of the simplicity of the experiments and lower cost. It is possible to obtain high quality films by changing deposition parameters.

In this study, ZnO films were electrodeposited onto 100nm thick tin doped indium oxide (ITO) coated glass substrate via electrochemical deposition technique. Hexamethylenetetramine (C₆H₁₂N₄) and zinc nitrate hexahydrate Zn(NO₃)₂.6H₂O salts were used as precursors in a 90°C aqueous solution. In our experimental setup, potassium chloride saturated silver/silver chloride (Ag/AgCl) electrode, a platinum (Pt) wire and ITO substrate were used as reference, counter and working electrodes, respectively. Experiments were carried out at -0.8, -0.9, -1.0, -1.1 and -1.2V for 90min of deposition time. After the depositions process, Structural and morphological properties of the ZnO films were investigated using Bruker D8 Advance XRD and Zeiss Ultra Plus FESEM.

From FESEM images, it is observed that as the applied voltage increase, the amount of the deposited film increase as well, but lower voltage values lead to insufficient coatings. XRD patterns reveal that films which deposited up to -1.0V applied voltage were grown along (002) orientation. Higher applied voltage values caused films to lost some part of their layers, it is probably the main reason of the weak diffraction peaks. As a result -1.0V applied voltage is found to be the best voltage value for this technique with using the parameters and materials mentioned above.

Acknowledgement: This work was supported by Anadolu University Commission of Scientific Research Project under Grant No. 1501F031