ZnO Electrodeposition on Boron-Doped Diamond: Effects of diamond surface terminations

The cathodic electrodeposition of zinc oxide has been widely studied on various substrates in the last decades. The boron doped diamond (BDD) is a non conventional wide band gap semiconductor, which offers new possibilities as a substrate for this electrochemical deposition. In the present work, we focus on the influence of the BDD surface chemistry either H- or O-terminated obtained by different oxidation treatments (electroless or anodic) on the ZnO deposition process. Surface terminations are followed by contact angle measurements and XPS analyses. The morphologies and structures of ZnO deposits are characterized by XRD and SEM. Besides playing on deposit morphology, this work shows that the surface terminations of BDD (-CH, -CHx, C-OH, -COOH, -COC or -C=O) have also a strong effect on the ZnO deposit adhesion.