Nucleation/Growth and Optical Proprieties of Co-doped ZnO Electrodeposited on ITO Substrate

A Co-doped ZnO layer was prepared by electrodeposition method on indium doped tin oxide (ITO) substrate using a cathodic reduction from nitrate medium with different doping percentages of cobalt. The bath temperature was controlled at 70 °C. The films were cathodically electrodeposited in a bath containing 5 mM Zn(NO3)2. 6H2O, while the source of Co is Co(NO3)2.6H2O where 0.1M KNO3 was used as supporting electrolyte. The nucleation and growth mechanism of Co-doped ZnO nuclei have been studied by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The cyclic voltammetry shows that the electrodeposition of ZnO and Co-doped ZnO at a negative potential around -1.0 V versus saturated calomel electrode (SCE) is a quasi-reversible reaction controlled by the diffusion process. Comparing current transients curves obtained by the chronoamperometric method with the theoretical curves of current density j versus t ½ allows us to say that the nucleation is 3D instantaneous, as shown in SEM analysis. The presence of Co does not modify the nucleation and growth mechanism. The XRD patterns show that the substitution of zinc by cobalt does not change the würtzite crystal structure, but the crystallite size decreases with the cobalt percentage. The transmittance spectra indicate that the Co-doped ZnO films are transparent in the visible range. The optical gap increases with the doping percentage of cobalt.