Morphology and properties of ZnO nanostructures by electrochemical deposition: effect of the substrate treatment

Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanostructures have been grown by electrochemical deposition on the indium-tin oxide (ITO) substrates. The influences and mechanism of pre-treatment of ITO on the morphology, density and size of ZnO nanostructures have been studied. Hexagonal dumbbell-like shape of ZnO bipods have been obtained because of the absence of nucleation sites on the unetched ITO substrate. An ITO etching process in dilute HCl results in the instantaneous and high density nucleation process, which was introduced to reduce the system energy and increase the growth density of ZnO nanostructures. Therefore, well-defined hexagonal and dense ZnO nanorods array are deposited on the etched ITO surface.