Synthesis of highly conductive and transparent ZnO nanowhisker films using aqueous solution

Highly conductive and transparent ZnO nanowhisker films which can be used as transparent electrodes of optoelectronic devices have been produced at lower temperatures on modified conductive F-doped SnO₂ coated glass substrates in zinc nitratehexamethylenetetramine aqueous solutions with the addition of polyethylenimine. The crystal structure and morphology of ZnO nanowhiskers were characterized by X-ray diffraction and FE-SEM, respectively. The morphology of ZnO whiskers is dependent on the existence of surfactant polyethylenimine. The optical and electrical properties of the resultant porous films are discussed in terms of the crystal characteristics and microstructure. The films consisting of nanowhiskers with a height of 1 μm exhibited high transmittance of up to 85% in the visible range. The high monochromatic incident photo-electric conversion efficiency (IPCE) of about 50% indicated the excellent potential of ZnO electrodes based on nanowhisker arrays.