Formation of ZnO in or on glasses by using the sol-gel and chemical bath deposition techniques

In the first part of this work was produced Zinc Oxide (ZnO) into a glass matrix by using the Sol-Gel Technique at room temperature, these materials were prepared using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as precursor, the Zn ions were added before the jellification step trough an aqueous solution of zinc acetate. These glasses were characterized by X-ray diffraction, optic absorption, FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy. The X-ray patterns showed amorphousness. The optical absorption shows a shoulder in the UV range corresponding whit ZnO confined to the vitreous matrix. The spectra by FT-IR show characteristic vibrations of Si-O-Si with interaction Zn⁺². Raman scattering let us to identify and precise the formation of the ZnO. In the second part of this work was immersed glass substrates into an aqueous chemical bath with external controlled temperature, the chemical solutions contained in the bath were a Zn Ions source (ZnSO₄) 0.1 M, a pH 10 Buffer solution (NH₄Cl/NH ₄OH), Ethanolamine to complex the Zn ions, and pure water, resulting ZnO films hexagonally structured with energy band gap of 3.3 eV, growing 1000 nm during 25 minutes followed of 60 minutes to 75°C and 85°C in the same chemical reaction.