Zinc Acetate Dehydrate Analysis

Undoped and Ce doped ZnO thin films were prepared by the sol-gel process. Zinc acetate dehydrate was dissolved in a mixture of absolute ethanol and monoethanolamine (MEA) yielding to a precursor concentration of 0.4 M .The MEA to zinc acetate molar ratio was set to 1. For doped films, cerium nitrate was added to the mixture with an atomic percentage fixed at 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9 at.% Ce, respectively.
The resulting sols were magnetically stirred at 60°C for 1 hour and then aged at room temperature for one week to get clear and transparent homogeneous solutions. Prior to film deposition, commercial glass substrates were ultrasonically cleaned by using deionized water, ethanol, and acetone for 15 min, respectively. Then, the substrates were dried in an oven at 80°C for 10 min. The substrates were dipped in the prepared sols and then withdrawn at a constant dip-coating speed of 15 mm/min. After each deposition, all samples were preheated at 200°C for 10 min to remove the solvent and organic residuals.
These samples were annealed in an air atmosphere furnace for one hour at 500° C.
The crystalline structure of ZnO thin films thus prepared was characterized via the XRD technique with a PanAlytical diffractometer. The chemical composition of the films was examined using EDS with a scanning electron microscope (SEM, Quanta 2000). The surface morphology of the films was examined in contact mode by Nanosurf easyScan 2. The optical transmittance spectra were collected at room temperature by a Safas UVmc2 UV-Vis. spectrophotometer and the photoluminescence measurements were carried out at room temperature using a He–Cd laser 325