Formation of ZnO nanostructures by chemical bath deposition route: Observation of growth and optical properties

ZnO films have been synthesized on a zinc foil by chemical bath deposition route from an electrolyte of ZnCl2+ H2O2 at ambient conditions. The structures, morphologies and chemical compositions of the films were characte-rized by X-ray diffractometer (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrome-ter (EDS). The XRD pattern shows well peaks, which can be indexed to the wurtzite hexagonal phase of ZnO. The SEM observations reveal that with an increase in deposition time, the rod structures converted to cauliflower struc-tures. The EDS result indicates the presence of Zn and O atoms only. Photoluminescence (PL) studies evaluated different visible emissions originated from different defect mechanism. According to the obtained results, the possi-ble growth mechanism for the variation in the morphology is discussed. This method may have a potential use in fabricating other metal oxide at low cost for technological applications.