Electrochemically induced growth of zinc oxide

The electrolytically induced precipitation of zinc oxide from zinc nitrate solution on gold surfaces in the presence of water-soluble polymers was examined for reaction times between 0.5 and 600 seconds. Regardless of the additive, polycrystalline films of zinc oxide have formed after 30 seconds, but polymeric additives dramatically change the morphology of the ZnO films. Amperometric analysis and fitting the diffusion reduced the current den sity-time curve according to Avrami kinetics and it reveals that polymers bearing methacrylic acid groups result in spherical growth whereas such with sulfonic acid groups lead to a plate-like growth of crystallites. Without additive prisms grow predominantly in one dimension. These findings are confirmed also by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis.