Characterization of nanostructured ZnO grown by linear sweep voltammetry

•ZnO nanorods with hexagonal structure were prepared by linear sweep voltammetry method.•The sweep rate played an important role in the formation of ZnO nanorods.•A possible growth mechanism was proposed for the formation of ZnO nanorods.

Highly transparent and well aligned ZnO nanorods (NRs) have been synthesized by linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrates. The effect of electrodeposition parameters such as sweep rate and number of cycles was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence (PL) and UV–visible spectroscopy. The deposited ZnO NRs show hexagonal zincite structure and a high transmittance up to 95% in the near infrared and part of the visible region. The density, the orientation and the optical properties of ZnO NRs were strongly affected by the type of the sweep rate, and this was related to the nucleation mode involved in each case.