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Abstract??A novel route to the growth of thin films of ZnAl2O4in nano-scale order was developed and nano-thin films of ZnAl2O4are grown. The variation of grain size with solution concentration is reported. The thin film was deposited by modified liquid-phase deposition (LPD) technique using a novel acid based chemical reaction for the first time to ternary system. This modified LPD is based on a novel reaction that favours the formation of nanostructures during the treatment of a precursor (here ZnO) and a metal foil (Al) in diluted HF acid. The acid serves both as a solvent and catalyst. Usually, in wet process synthesis of binary systems, the metal foil will act as F?ion scavenger. In this method, formation of a ternary compound as well as growth of thin film nanostructures of that compound was achieved by the same chemical reaction at room temperature. The role of acid concentration in the nanostructure formation is discussed. The relationship between HF concentration and grain size were also graphically enumerated. Structural, compositional and surface morphological properties of thin films were studied using Philips, Xpert-MPD: X-ray diffractometer and Philips, ESEM-TMP?+?EDAX, Nanoscope-III: AFM. The technique is a novel, simple and low cost route for the growth of nano-thin films of ternary oxide material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development of a novel in situmethod for simultaneous growth of single crystals and thin films of a smart material spinel is achieved. Material to be grown as metal-incorporated single crystal and thin film was taken as a precursor and put into a bath containing acid as a reaction speed-up reagent (catalyst) as well as a solvent with a metal foil as cation scavenger. By this novel method, zinc aluminate crystals having hexagonal facets and thin films having single crystalline orientation were prepared from a single optimized bath. Properties of both crystals and thin films were studied using an x-ray diffractometer and EDAX. ZnAl2O4is a well-known wide bandgap compound semiconductor (Eg= 3.8 eV), ceramic, opto-mechanical and anti-thermal coating in aerospace vehicles. Thus a space_ gmr technique was found to be a new low cost and advantageous method for in situand simultaneous growth of single crystals and thin films of a smart material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]