Direct assembly of ZnO nanostructures on glass substrates by chemical bath deposition through precipitation method

In this work, spindle/flower-like zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructured arrays have been directly grown on glass substrates using triethanolamine (TEA) as a complexing agent by chemical bath deposition (CBD). Control over the morphology of ZnO nanocrystallites was achieved by varying the concentration of the complexing agent in the bath solution. ZnO crystallites exhibited a hexagonal wurtzite structure with preferential orientation along the c-axis. The morphology of the ZnO crystallites with star or needle-like spindles was altered to flower like nanostructures by adjusting the complexing agent concentration. Compared to as-deposited films, films sintered at 300 ∘C exhibited a sharp UV emission due to a decrease in the defect density. A possible growth mechanism for obtaining ZnO nanoflower arrays without a seed layer on glass substrates has been discussed.