Investigation of Solvent Effect on the Structural Morphological and Optical Properties of ZnO Doped Mg Elaborated by Sol-Gel Method

Abstract

This work aims to study the solvent’s effect on the structural, morphological, and optical properties of Mg-doped zinc oxide (MZO) thin films. The results of the XRD analysis revealed that the 2-methoxyethanol solvent imparts a preferential orientation to the MZO samples, following the (002) plane, with a maximum value observed at 2% Mg. In contrast, the samples prepared using methanol show no preferential orientation. SEM analysis corroborated that the use of 2-methoxyethanol results in an orderly distribution of MZO crystallites. The optical characterization indicated that the transmittance of MZO thin films reached a maximum value of 90% for Mg concentrations ranging from 2% to 3%. At the same time, the refractive index showed its lowest value of 1.46. In contrast, the use of methanol as a solvent resulted in a maximum transmittance of 80% at 4% Mg, accompanied by a minimum refractive index value of 1.96.