Electrochemical Self-Assembly of ZnO Nanosheetlike Structures

ZnO nanosheetlike structures were synthesized on zinc (Zn) foil substrates by electrochemical deposition method in ZnCl2 aqueous solutions at a temperature of 90 °C. In addition, the synthetic parameters in this work allow additional structural direction for ZnO nanoscaled structures. The morphology growth from smooth plane structures to nanosheet like structures could be accomplished by modifying the current densities of electrodeposition. In the photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the as-synthesized ZnO samples, typically there are few oxygen vacancies or interstitial Zn centers would be produced when the electrochemical deposition was performed out with a low current density. The UV peak is usually considered as the characteristic emission of ZnO nanosheetlike structures and attributed to the band edge emission or the exciton transition. All XRD diffraction peaks of ZnO nanosheetlike structures are shown in a good agreement with hexagonal structure. The average particle size was calculated using the Debye-Scherrer formula. ZnO nanosheetlike structures processed for various current densities have different size.