Here, we report the effect of the substrate, sonication process, and postannealing on the structural, morphological, and optical properties of ZnO thin films grown in the presence of isopropyl alcohol (IPA) at temperature 30–65 °C by the successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method on both soda lime glass (SLG) and Cu foil. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns confirmed the preferential growth thin films along (002) and (101) planes of the wurtzite ZnO structure when deposited on SLG and Cu foil substrates, respectively. Both XRD and Raman spectra confirmed the ZnO and Cu-oxide phases of the deposited films. The scanning electron microscopy image of the deposited films shows compact and uniformly distributed grains for samples grown without sonication while using IPA at temperatures 50 and 65 °C. The postannealing treatment improves the crystallinity of the films, further evident by XRD and transmission and reflection results. The estimated optical band gaps are in the range of 3.37–3.48 eV for the as-grown samples. Our experimental results revealed that high-quality ZnO thin films could be grown without sonication using an IPA dispersant at 50 °C, which is much lower than the reported results using the SILAR method. This study suggests that in the presence of IPA, the SLG substrate results in better c-axis-oriented ZnO thin films than that of deionized water, ethylene glycol, and propylene glycol at the optimum temperature of 50 °C. Air annealing of the samples grown on Cu foils induced the formation of Cu_xO/ZnO junctions, which is evident from the characteristic I–V curve including the structural and optical data.

The optoelectronic properties of Sn-doped ZnO nanoparticles.

In this report, we study the Yttrium-doped Barium Titanate (Y-BT) Ba_{1 − x}Y_xTiO₃ (with x = 0.00, 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, 0.07 mmol) perovskite ceramics synthesized by sol-gel method. The as-made powder samples were pressed into a pellet shape and subsequently sintered at 1300 °C for 5 h in air. The structural, morphological, electrical, and optical properties of the synthesized samples were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), impedance analyzer, and UV-Vis-NIR Spectroscopy respectively. The XRD study revealed the formations of single phase tetragonal structure of Barium Titanate (BT) with ∼23–33 nm mean crystallite size. The crystallite size increases initially with Y-doping, found at about 33 nm for x = 0.01, and reduces for increase in Y³⁺ concentration further. The microstructural study from FESEM depicts the uniform distribution of compact and well-faceted grain growth for Y-BT in contrast with undoped barium titanate. The average grain size (∼0.29–0.78 μm) of the Y-BT decreases with increasing doping concentration. Frequency-dependent impedance analyses show enhanced dielectric properties like dielectric constant, quality factor, and conductivity with low dielectric loss in the presence of Yttrium. The optical bandgap energy (∼2.63–3.72 eV) estimated from UV-Vis-NIR diffuse reflection data shows an increasing trend with a higher concentration of yttrium doping.