Preparation of porous ZnO plate crystal thin films by electrochemical deposition using PS template assistant

Porous ZnO plate crystal thin films were electrodeposited from an aqueous solution containing 0.5 M zinc nitrate as electrolyte with pH = 5 ± 0.1. Polystyrene spheres (PS) template was used as pore-forming assistant. The deposition was carried out with an applied potential − 0.8 V and − 0.9 V and bath temperature was 70 °C. The influence of potential on microstructure of porous plate crystal was observed by SEM. X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra showed that the thin film was wurtzite structure. And the transmittance spectrum indicated that transmissivity was low in 300–900 nm and approximately linear decreasing with the decrease of wavelength. Additionally, the formation process of porous plate crystal was also discussed.