The study on formation mechanism of novel ZnO cone prepared by using pulsed current electrodeposition

•The ZnO cones were prepared by pulsed current electrodeposition method.•The concentration of Zn(NO3)2 played an important role in formation of ZnO cones.•A possible growth process was proposed for formation of ZnO cones.

The ZnO cones were grown on the indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates using the pulsed current electrodeposition (PCE) method. The influences of concentration of Zn(NO3)2 and reaction time on morphological evolution of ZnO cones were investigated for obtaining uniform ZnO cones. Based on scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis, a possible growth process of homogeneous nucleation and subsequent coalescent growth was proposed as plausible mechanistic interpretation for formation of the novel conical ZnO.