Effects of Ag doping amount on structural properties of zinc oxide nanostructures

•ZnO nanostructures were composed of flower-like bundles and hexagonal disks.•With addition of Ag in the ZnO, the growth of the flower-like bundles was suppressed.•The intensity of the Ag peak increased with increasing Ag amounts in the ZnO.•With 3 mM Ag amount, the AZO nanostructures had dramatically low sheet resistance.

We investigated the structural properties of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures grown on the glass substrates using the chemical solution deposition while being doped with Ag in different amounts. The undoped ZnO nanostructures were composed of flower-like bundles consisting of nanorods with a length of ~2.3 μm and hexagonal disks with a diameter of ~2.2 μm and thickness of ~350 nm. In these flower-like bundles, the diameter and density of the nanorods at the center were smaller and higher, respectively, than those of the nanorods at the edge. With addition of Ag in the ZnO, the Ag nanoparticles were formed on the substrate, which led to suppress the growth of the flower-like bundles and decrease the thickness of the disks. The intensities of the diffraction peaks corresponding to the ZnO and Ag phases decreased and increased, respectively, with an increase in the amount of Ag added. It was found that the Ag-doped ZnO nanostructures contained Ag particles, which formed a continuous thin film, resulting in low sheet resistance (~1 Ω/sq).

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