UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST
FACULTY OF PHYSICS

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2024-11-23 17:58
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Conference: Bucharest University Faculty of Physics 2023 Meeting


Section: Solid State Physics and Materials Science, Optics, Spectroscopy, Plasma and Lasers


Title:
Effects of withdrawal speed on the properties of ZnO thin films deposited by an automated SILAR technique


Authors:
Brahim YDIR(1,2), Iulia ANTOHE(2), Gabriel SOCOL(2), Mohamed BOUSSETTA(1), Houda LAHLOU(1)


*
Affiliation:
1) Laboratory of Materials, Signals, Systems and Physical Modeling, Faculty of Science-University Ibn Zohr- Agadir, Morocco

2) National Institute for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Magurele, Romania



E-mail
brahim.ydir@edu.uiz.ac.ma


Keywords:
ZnO thin film, withdrawal speed, immersion speed, SILAR, nanomaterials


Abstract:
Nanotechnology is a field of science found in various areas of our lives since it allows the creation of materials with unique structures and properties [1]. These nanomaterials with interesting features can be prepared by various physical, chemical, and/or biological methods, and they vary according to the employed synthesis approach [2]. Successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) is one of the most widely used method to deposit thin films of various materials because of its simplicity, efficiency and versatility[3]. The growth of thin films using the SILAR technique is influenced by various factors, including the concentration of precursor solutions, pH, number of cycles, temperature, dipping time, speed of substrate immersion and withdrawal, respectively [4]. The latter parameter is the most difficult to control, affecting the final thin film properties, such as thickness, size, uniformity and adhesion. The traditional manual control of this mechanical parameter leads to restrictions and problems in reproducibility and coating quality. In this context, the in-house developed SILAR automated system [5] allows precise controlling of all the deposition parameters, including the immersion and the withdrawal speed of the substrate. In this work, the variation of the substrate withdrawal speeds was studied to see its effect on the structural, morphological and optical properties of the obtained zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films. The crystallinity, as well as the phase purity of the ZnO coated by immersion, was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and demonstrates that the crystallite size decreases with increasing withdrawal speed, i.e., decreasing film thickness. The surface morphology of the films characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed a change in the function of the withdrawal rate variation. The optical band gap of the dip-coated ZnO films was estimated in the range of 3.14 to 3.21 eV from the UV-VIS transmission data, and it shows an increase with increasing withdrawal speed.


References:

[1] Malik, S. et al.; Nanotechnology: A Revolution in Modern Industry, Molecules 28 (2023).

[2] Chavali, M. Et al.; Metal oxide nanoparticles and their applications in nanotechnology. SN Appl. Sci. 1, 1–30 (2019).

[3] Ydir, B. et al.; Towards the development of a gas micro-sensor based on nano-structured zinc oxide thin film for ethanol gas detection, Mater. Today Proc. 52, 89–94 (2022).

[4] Ratnayake, S. P. et al.; SILAR Deposition of Metal Oxide Nanostructured Films, Small 17, 2101666 (2021).

[5] Ydir, B. et al.; Design, implementation, and characterization of an automated SILAR system: validation with ZnO thin film deposition, Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol. 123, 1189–1201 (2022).

Acknowledgement:
This work was financially supported by the doctoral scholarships "Eugen Ionescu"2023 through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, by the National Authority for Research and Innovation in the framework of the Nucleus Programme—LAPLAS VII (grant 30N/2023); by the national fellowship program L’Oreal - Unesco “For Women in Science” 2022-2023.