Effect of Monoethanolamine Content on the Crystallinity of ZnO Thin Films

ZnO is one of the most widely used semiconductors for opto-electronic applications due to its tunable band gap energy, high optical transparency in visible region. The effect of different monoethanolamine (MEA) ratio on structural, morphological and optical properties of ZnO thin films was investigated in this study. A nano-fiber like structured ZnO was fabricated through facile sol-gel dip coating process on glass substrates without any further treatment. We observed that the peak intensity of samples increased and the amount of defects in the crystal could be further decreased by rising its of monoethanolamine. Besides, the micro-fiber like grains of the ZnO covered the glass surface quite densely when the monoethanolamine content increased. The optical study showed that the transparency of the films could be enhanced by increasing the amount of stabilizer.