Ag-doped ZnO Nanorod Structures Grown by Hydrothermal-based Process

Abstract

This work reports on the synthesis of Ag-doped ZnO p-type nanorods films grown on glass substrates by hydrothermal process. The ZnO nanorods were synthesized via aqueous solution process with zinc nitrate hexahydrate, hexamethylenetetramine and dopant precursor including AgNO₃ on ZnO seed layers. The ZnO seed layers were deposited by solgel spin coating method starting by zinc acetate dihydrate as a precursor dissolved in absolute ethanol. The precursor was coated 8 times then annealed in air at 500°C for 2 h. The dopant concentration was varied from 0-10 mol% by adding a cathodic dopant, into an aqueous solution for hydrothermal process. The influence of dopant concentration on structural, morphological and optical properties is investigated by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and ultravioletvisible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometer. These results exhibit ZnO hexagonal wurtzite with no impurity phase on undoped ZnO nanorods. The deterioration in phase of Ag-doped ZnO indicates that Ag ion may substitute on zinc site that is in agreeable with the morphological result. The optical properties exhibit low transparency at visible region implying that asgrown ZnO nanostructure may act as light absorber or scattering species.