Electrochemical self-assembly of oriented zinc oxide film from polyethylene oxide containing electrolyte

Oriented nanopillar ZnO crystals were firstly fabricated by the potentiostatic cathodic electrodeposition technique on conducting glass substrates from polyethylene oxide (PEO) containing zinc nitrate solutions at low temperature (343 K). The mechanism for PEO-assisted electrochemical growth of ZnO hexagonal columus was proposed and confirmed by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and UV-visible spectrophotometer measurements. It was observed that the concentration of PEO played an important role in the morphology and size of ZnO crystals. The structure and optical studies indicated that the addition of PEO not only influenced crystal growth habit but also improve the optical properties of ZnO.