Influence of growth time on the morphology of ZnO nanostructures prepared by low-temperature chemical bath deposition

Different zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructured thin films were grown on glass substrates at low temperatures by combining successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method and chemical bath deposition (CBD). Morphologies and structures of the samples were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The reaction mechanism for the growth of ZnO microstructures is analyzed. The results show that the surface morphology of the ZnO nanostructures films changed from hexagonal nanorods into hexagonal nanodisc with increasing the growth time ofZnO. According to XRD, the growth of a preferred c-axis oriented ZnO nanostructured thin films in (002) orientation can be easily driven at such low growth temperature.The present approach demonstrates its potential for large-scale, low-temperature and controlled structural morphology of ZnO nanostructured films.