Optical properties of ZnO nanorods on glass via spray deposition of solution containing zinc chloride and thiourea

In this research paper, we have investigated optical properties of two zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods specimens grew on a glass by spray deposition of a solution, which contains only zinc chloride ( ZnCl2) and ZnCl 2 with small amount of thiourea (tu: CH4N2S). We sprayed a 1 mL of each solution onto a glass in every minute to obtain a 50 mL specimen. The prepared specimens were characterized by X-ray diffraction, SEM, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, UVVis absorption spectroscopy, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. We have observed from SEM measurements that small addition of thiourea into a ZnCl2 solution (ZnCl2:tu = 1:0.25) provides significantly thinner ZnO nanorods with a higher aspect ratio compared to that obtained from only ZnCl2 solution. It is noted that this addition considerably decreased the diameter of ZnO nanorods to 500 nm and increased the height to approximately 200 nm. This is desirable in nanotechnology applications. However, it is observed from PL measurements that optical properties of ZnO nanorods prepared from ZnCl2 and thiourea solution deteriorate. © 2010 IEEE.