Synthesis of ZnO Thin Film by Electroplating: Effect of Zinc Concentration on the Structural and Optical Properties

Abstract

ZnO material possesses a huge potential to be utilized as the photoanode in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC) application. In this work, we prepared ZnO thin films with different zinc concentrations by a simple and low-cost electroplating technique. XRD analysis reveals that all ZnO thin films with different zinc concentrations have a hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure with crystallite sizes ranging from 19.37 to 32.96 nm. The SEM analysis demonstrated that particle size of the ZnO thin films increased from 46 ±12 to 78±28 nm as the zinc concentration increased from 0.1 to 0.4M. The optical properties analysis revealed the transmittance value of the ZnO thin film for all coating solution concentrations greater than 80%. The band gap energy of the ZnO thin films slightly decrease from 3.20 to 3.16 eV with increasing zinc concentrations from 0.1 to 0.4 M.