Electrochemical growth of ZnO nano-rods on polycrystalline Zn foil

ZnO nano-rods were grown on polycrystalline Zn foil by cathodic electrodeposition in an aqueous zinc chloride/calcium chloride solution at 80°C. Variations in the solution concentration and substrate surface preparation were explored to shed light on the nucleation of the nano-rods. It was found that the nano-rod diameter increased with increasing solution concentration. Rolling striations and native ZnO on the surface of the Zn appeared to enhance nucleation and allowed more highly aligned, dense structures to be grown. By using low solution concentrations (5.0 × 10⁻⁴ M ZnCl ₂) and non-electropolished Zn substrates, well faceted, hexagonal nano-rod structures of dimension ∼80 nm diameter and >1 µm length were obtained. X-ray studies showed the samples to be highly aligned but containing a Zn-oxychloride impurity phase. Annealing caused the impurity phase to disappear and resulted in the films having a sharp photoluminescence double peak at 380/396 nm.