A Study on the Effects of the Discharge Current and Ambient Temperature on the Formation of Zinc Oxide Synthesized via the Zinc-Air System

作者：Tan W C^*; Mohamad A A

来源：Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 2010, 157(12): E184-E190.

DOI：10.1149/1.3494213

A layer of zinc oxide was synthesized on a zinc substrate using the Zn-air system in which the zinc substrate was used as the anode, air-cathode as a cathode, and a low concentration of potassium hydroxide was used to mediate the electrodes. In this study, the effects of the discharge current and ambient temperature were studied. The synthesis profile shows faster synthesis at higher drainage currents and at higher ambient temperatures. The X-ray diffraction pattern reveals that the zinc peak only appears after 20 mA and at 40 degrees C, while the ZnO peak increases with discharge currents up to 50 mA and 80 degrees C and decreases at higher discharge currents and temperatures. Morphology studies show that with elevated discharge currents, the ZnO arrays were downgraded and at elevated ambient temperatures, the size of the ZnO structures become larger; thus, both scenarios lead to a lower surface-to-volume ratio structures of the ZnO arrays. Transmission electron microscopy images show needle-like structures with a width of similar to 20 nm at the pointed end. Finally, photoluminescence spectroscopy readings suggest that synthesized ZnO possesses a bandgap energy (E(g)) of 3.26 eV and drops in the ultraviolet region.

• 出版日期2010