An innovative approach to deposit ultrathin ZnO nanoflakes (2D) through hydrothermal assisted electrochemical discharge deposition and growth method

The functionality and structural properties of nanomaterials significantly depend on the synthesis method. This work explored a novel fast route to deposit ultrathin zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoflakes on a conical microprobe tip by combining the effect of hydrothermal, electrochemical, and electro-discharge deposition process. The experimental results indicate the formation of ZnO nanoflakes and show the variance of thickness (min≤10 nm)/morphologies at different electrochemical parameters. The impact of varying voltage potential and concentration was analyzed and discussed. A hydrothermally prepared precursor solution of zinc nitrate hexahydrate (Zn(NO3)2·6H2O) and hexamine ((CH2)6N4) was used as a growth solution. The crystallinity and phase purity were analyzed by XRD. The functional groups, molecular fingerprints, were recognized by FTIR. Further, the bandgap energy (3.262eV) was estimated by Mott-Davis relation in UV–Vis spectroscopy via Tauc plot.