Ultra-fast Microwave Synthesis of ZnO Nanowires and their Dynamic Response Toward Hydrogen Gas

Ultra-fast and large-quantity (grams) synthesis of one-dimensional ZnO nanowires has been carried out by a novel microwave-assisted method. High purity Zinc (Zn) metal was used as source material and placed on microwave absorber. The evaporation/oxidation process occurs under exposure to microwave in less than 100 s. Field effect scanning electron microscopy analysis reveals the formation of high aspect-ratio and high density ZnO nanowires with diameter ranging from 70 to 80 nm. Comprehensive structural analysis showed that these ZnO nanowires are single crystal in nature with excellent crystal quality. The gas sensor made of these ZnO nanowires exhibited excellent sensitivity, fast response, and good reproducibility. Furthermore, the method can be extended for the synthesis of other oxide nanowires that will be the building block of future nanoscale devices

Seedless Pattern Growth of Quasi-Aligned ZnO Nanorod Arrays on Cover Glass Substrates in Solution

A hybrid technique for the selective growth of ZnO nanorod arrays on wanted areas of thin cover glass substrates was developed without the use of seed layer of ZnO. This method utilizes electron-beam lithography for pattern transfer on seedless substrate, followed by solution method for the bottom-up growth of ZnO nanorod arrays on the patterned substrates. The arrays of highly crystalline ZnO nanorods having diameter of 60 ± 10 nm and length of 750 ± 50 nm were selectively grown on different shape patterns and exhibited a remarkable uniformity in terms of diameter, length, and density. The room temperature cathodluminescence measurements showed a strong ultraviolet emission at 381 nm and broad visible emission at 585–610 nm were observed in the spectrum

Selective Growth of Vertical-aligned ZnO Nanorod Arrays on Si Substrate by Catalyst-free Thermal Evaporation

By thermal evaporation of pure ZnO powders, high-density vertical-aligned ZnO nanorod arrays with diameter ranged in 80–250 nm were successfully synthesized on Si substrates covered with ZnO seed layers. It was revealed that the morphology, orientation, crystal, and optical quality of the ZnO nanorod arrays highly depend on the crystal quality of ZnO seed layers, which was confirmed by the characterizations of field-emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and photoluminescence measurements. For ZnO seed layer with wurtzite structure, the ZnO nanorods grew exactly normal to the substrate with perfect wurtzite structure, strong near-band-edge emission, and neglectable deep-level emission. The nanorods synthesized on the polycrystalline ZnO seed layer presented random orientation, wide diameter, and weak deep-level emission. This article provides a C-free and Au-free method for large-scale synthesis of vertical-aligned ZnO nanorod arrays by controlling the crystal quality of the seed layer

Electrical and gas sensing properties of ZnO nanorod arrays directly grown on a four-probe electrode system

A method for measuring the electrical characteristics of aligned ZnO nanorod arrays (NRAs) directly grown on a pre-patterned four-point probe system in solution was proposed. This four-probe method enabled us to perform electrical measurements directly on the as-grown ZnO nanorod arrays without any additional processing. The location, shape and length of the rods directly grown on the four-probe electrodes were well controlled. The current-voltage characteristics showed a low turn-on voltage and a high saturation current. These ZnO NRAs devices were implemented as gas sensors for detecting hydrogen. The sensitivity increased with the concentration of H-2 and the operating temperature. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.X114045sciescopu

Well-aligned ZnO nanorods for device applications: Synthesis and characterisation of ZnO nanorods and n-ZnO/p-Si heterojunction diodes

Well-aligned, low-resistive zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods were grown on ZnO-coated glass and p-Si substrates using a simple and economic solution method. The device performance of ZnO nanorods has been investigated by studying their p-n junction diode behaviour at room temperature. The as-grown n-ZnO/p-Si diode exhibited a low turn-on voltage and saturation current of ~ 2.25 V and ~ 1.27 μA, respectively, with a diode quality factor of 1.9. These investigations reveal that the well-aligned ZnO nanorod structures can be used as an active layer in the fabrication of efficient optoelectronic nano-devices