Synthesis and characterization of Zn/ZnO microspheres on indented sites of silicon substrate

Self-assembled Zn/ZnO microspheres have been accomplished on selected sites of boron doped P-type silicon substrates using hydrothermal approach. The high density Zn/ZnO microspheres were grown on the Si substrates by chemical treatment in mixed solution of zinc sulfate ZnSO₄·7H₂O and ammonium hydroxide NH₄(OH) after uniform heating at 95 °C for 15 min. The Zn/ZnO microspheres had dimensions in the range of 1 μm to 20 μm and were created only on selected sites of silicon substrate. The crystal structure, chemical composition and morphology of as-prepared samples were studied by using scanning electron microscope SEM, X-ray diffraction XRD, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy EDS, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy FT-IR and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance absorption spectra DRS. The energy band gap E_g of about 3.28 eV was obtained using Tauc plot. In summary, this study suggests that interfacial chemistry is responsible for the crystal growth on indented sites of silicon substrate and the hydrothermal based growth mechanism is proposed as a useful methodology for the formation of highly crystalline three dimensional (3-D) Zn/ZnO microspheres.