Impact of cobalt as dopant on surface morphologies of undoped ZnO nanostructured thin films

Abstract

This study is aimed to investigate the effect of cobalt, as dopant, on the surface morphologies of nanostructured ZnO thin films. Four different cobalt‐doped ZnO morphologies were prepared by low‐temperature hydrothermal solution deposition, on 2 different substrates—clean glass (CG) and direct‐current magnetron‐sputtered (MS) ZnO glass. An inverse relationship between dopant concentration and grain size was obtained in morphologies obtained from the mixture of solution Zn(NO3)2 + HMT + Co(NO)3.6H2O. No specific relationship exists for those obtained from the mixture of solution Zn(NO3)2 + HMT + PEI + Co(NO)3.6H2O. In general, morphologies obtained from a mixture Zn(NO3)2 + HMT + Co(NO)3.6H2O and Zn(NO3)2 + HMT + PEI + Co(NO)3.6H2O, on MS and CG substrate, vary in grain size (both in length and diameter), crystal population, morphology, film thickness, and crystallinity on films grown on both MS and CG substrates. An increased volumetric size is observed with the increased concentration of cobalt. Lowering the pH—even by 1 magnitude—makes the MS template less effective at aligning the growth of ZnO crystals, giving a decreased crystal packing density.

Spent shell as a calcium source for constructing calcium vanadate for high-performance Zn-ion batteries

“…Ali et al reported co-doped ZnO and found an inverse relationship between dopant concentration and grain size. 27 The decrease of particle size results from the influence of doping elements on the crystallization and nucleation rate of the material, which hinders the crystallite growth of particles. 27,28 The XRD patterns of the CVO and CVO-s samples are shown in Fig.…”

“…27 The decrease of particle size results from the influence of doping elements on the crystallization and nucleation rate of the material, which hinders the crystallite growth of particles. 27,28…”