Synthesis of nanoflakes-like shapes of zinc sulfide grown at room temperature by electrodeposition method

•Nanoflakes like shape are synthesized by very simple and inexpensive method.•As deposited materials show redshift.•The bath conc. and deposition time is of significant interest and is a widely used technique for instance semiconductor production.•The surface morphology and better crystallinity are the significant features of this method.

Zinc sulfide thin films were deposited on stainless steel and indium doped tin oxide substrates from an aqueous solution of ZnSO4, and Na2S2O3. This study reports the effect of bath conc. on the crystal structure, surface morphology, optical properties and compositional analysis of zinc sulfide nanostructured thin films. The electrodeposition time and bath concentration can be used to control the dimensions of the electrodeposited nanoflakes within nanometer range. Zinc sulfide thin films are polycrystalline with cubic crystal structure. SEM images indicate that the film surfaces are well-covered with zinc sulfide nanoflakes. The agglomeration of nanoflakes is enhanced due to the formation of large number of particles during growth process. A Raman shift of sample is detected at wave number 254 cm−1. Typical film deposited with optimized bath concentration shows optical band gap of about 3.83 eV.

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