The effect of surfactant on the structure and properties of ZnO films prepared by electrodeposition

Highlights: ► Surfactant op-10 as additive. ► Adding surfactant plays an important role in improvement crystal quality of ZnO films. ► Deposition rate of the films is increased about two times after adding surfactant. ► The quality of deposited ZnO films was improved for an optimized surfactant ratio 0.5%. - Abstract: The effect of surfactant on the formation, structure and properties of ZnO films synthesized by electrodeposition was studied in this work. It was carried out in an aqueous Zn(NO3)2 solution containing surfactant op-10 using cathodic galvanostatic method. The results showed that the additive surfactant effectively inhibited hydrogen evolution reaction on cathode surface, maintained stability of the solution pH and improved deposition rate of the films to two times. Grown ZnO films with uniform grain and smooth surface were observed by using atomic force microscopy. Optical characterizations indicated that average optical transmittance of such films was more than 80% in the visible wavelength range, and its optical band gap was near 3.21 eV.