Date of Award

5-8-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Applied Science

First Advisor

Haydar Al- Shukri

Second Advisor

John Nichols

Abstract

Due to its outstanding structural, optical, and electrical properties, zinc oxide (ZnO) has received considerable attention from researchers. Even though there is a high demand for functional devices involving ZnO films and nanostructures, synthesizing devices comprising ZnO nanostructures requires expensive and time-consuming techniques that have limited their viability for comprehensive applications. Thus, there is a high demand for high-quality, cost-effective ZnO nanostructures. We have optimized the simple, low-cost, and time-efficient electrochemical deposition (ECD) technique to successfully synthesize high-quality vertically aligned ZnO nanorods to bridge this gap between fundamental and applied research. Characterization of their structural properties through x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy measurements confirm the high crystallinity and morphology of the ZnO nanostructures. In contrast, optical absorption spectroscopy measurements demonstrate bulk-like electronic properties with increased transmissivity in the visible region, and cyclic voltammetry measurements were conducted to study the electrochemical properties of ZnO nanostructures and thin films. The results are promising for fabricating functional devices, including electrochemical and photovoltaic devices. In the present work, we also introduce a simple, high performance two steps technique to synthesize Cu2O - ZnO Core-shell nanorods, where ZnO nanorods were grown on the Indium –tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates, using low-cost, time-saving electrochemical deposition (ECD), whereas Cu2O uniform thin films were deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD).

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