Crystal growth of nanostructured zinc oxide nanorods from the seed layer

One-dimensional (1D) zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures (nanorods) were synthesized on a glass slide and fluorine-doped tin oxide (SnO₂/F or FTO) coated glass (FTO/glass) by a wet chemical method. The structural, morphological and optical analyses of the as-deposited ZnO nanostructures were performed by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV-Vis spectroscopy, respectively. The XRD results showed that the nanostructures as-deposited on the glass and the FTO/glass substrates were of ZnO wurtzite crystal structure, and the crystallite sizes estimated from the (0 0 2) planes were 60.832 nm and 64.876 nm, respectively. The SEM images showed the growth of densely oriented ZnO nanorods with a hexagonal-faceted morphology. The UV-Vis absorption spectrum revealed high absorbance properties in the ultraviolet range and low absorbance properties in the visible range. The optical energy band gap of the ZnO nanostructure was estimated to be 3.87 eV by the absorption spectrum fitting (ASF) method.