To keep up with growing human energy demands it is critical to tap more deeply into renewable energy sources. Fossil fuels are a finite resource and have environmental repercussions associated with their harvest and use. There are many alternative energy approaches currently being investigated, solar energy being one of them. However, current solar cells suffer from high cost of production and low efficiency. To make photovoltaic technologies more feasible, the cost of production must be lowered or the efficiency increased. Nanostructured materials have opened up many new possibilities in this area. Zinc oxide nanorods are inexpensive and easy to fabricate on the nanoscale, making them a promising photovoltaic material. Here we report on the use of aluminum oxide (alumina) membranes to serve as a template for the ordered-growth of ZnO on indium tin oxide (ITO). This process centers around seeding alumina wells with ZnO nanocrystals followed by controlled growth at various reaction conditions, such as Zn concentration and temperature.  Scanning electron microscopy and other characterization methods were used to determine the quality of the final product.

Towards the production of well-ordered ZnO nanorods by chemical bath deposition

247th National Meeting (2014)

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