Effects of solvent, sol stabilizer and heat treatment on the microstructure of ZnO films prepared by sol-gel dip coating

ZnO films have been prepared on glass by sol-gel dip coating. The preferential orientation and surface morphology were characterized by XRD and SEM, respectively. It can be concluded as follows: solvent with higher boiling point helps to obtain ZnO with stronger preferred orientation; MEA is quite effective in formation of ZnO films with strong preferred orientation, while DEA and TEA are not; the preferred orientation will be weakened, when the temperature of pretreatment which aimed to densify the gel films overlaps that of the crystallization of gel film, post-treatment at higher temperatures of 400-500 degrees C will induce bigger grain size and stronger preferred orientation.