Novel synthesis of aligned Zinc oxide nanorods on a glass substrate by sonicated sol-gel immersion

For the first time, aligned ZnO nanorod structured thin films have been synthesized on a glass substrate, which had been coated with an Al-doped ZnO thin film, using the sonicated sol-gel immersion method. These nanorods were found to have an average diameter of 100 nm and an average length of 500 nm, with hexagonal wurtzite phase grew preferentially along the c-axis direction. A sharp ultra-violet (UV) emission centred at 383 nm corresponding to the free exciton recombination was observed in a room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectrum. The prepared ZnO nanorod structured thin film is transparent in the visible region with an average transmittance of 78% in the 400-800 nm wavelength range and high absorbance properties in the UV region (<400 nm). The results indicate that the prepared ZnO nanorods are suitable for ultra-violet photoconductive sensor applications. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.