Comparative Study on Morphology, Structural and Optical Properties of Non-seeded and Seeded ZnO Nanorods

Comparative analysis on morphological, structural, and optical between zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods on unseeded and seeded glass substrates was estimated. Both samples were synthesized by simple solution immersion method and annealed at 500 °C for 1 h. The morphological, structural, and optical properties of the investigated ZnO nanorods were characterized using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), X-Ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy, and Ultraviolet-Visible Spectroscopy (UV-vis), respectively. Average diameter size of ZnO on seeded glass substrates calculated from FESEM was 90 nm, four-fold smaller from the sample on the non-seeded layer. The wurtzite ZnO showed rod arrays morphology. It was found out that the (002) peak is the most dominant, indicating that the ZnO grows preferentially along the c-axis. No other peaks are suggesting that no impurities other than pure ZnO were obtained. The optical band gaps of seeded glass substrates ZnO nanorods decreased to 3.48 eV. High crystalline of ZnO nanorods on seeded glass substrate was achieved and can be beneficial for optoelectronics application.