Nanocrystalline zinc oxide thin films by novel double pulse single step electrodeposition

An attempt has been made to fabricate nanocrystalline zinc oxide thin films by using double pulse potentiostatic electrodeposition in oxygen saturated zinc acetate bath onto FTO coated conducting glass substrates. Zinc oxide formation mechanism has been studied by using linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM) in presence of oxygen. The influence of pulse parameters like nucleation pulse potential (E₁) and growth pulse potential (E₂) of a potentiostatic double pulse on the size distribution of zinc oxide thin films is investigated. The structural, morphological and optical properties of zinc oxide nanocrystalline thin films were studied. The results reveal how to tailor nanoparticles with respect to size, monodispersity and density of the deposit. Zinc oxide nanoparticles have been synthesized by optimizing pulse parameters of double pulse technique in oxygen saturated zinc acetate bath. The quantum size effect on optical band gap energies has been studied for the ZnO nanocrystalline thin films.