3D micro-structured arrays of Zn\u039f nanorods

Argyro N Giakoumaki,Argyro Klini,Alexandros Selimis,George Kenanakis,Zacharias Viskadourakis,Maria Farsari,Maria Androulidaki

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-02231-z

Argyro N Giakoumaki, Argyro Klini + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-02231-z

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Abstract

The fabrication of nanostructures with controlled assembly and architecture is very important for the development of novel nanomaterial-based devices. We demonstrate that laser techniques coupled with low-temperature hydrothermal growth enable complex three-dimensional ZnO nanorod patterning on various types of substrates and geometries. This methodology is based on a procedure involving the 3D scaffold fabrication using Multi-Photon Lithography of a photosensitive material, followed by Zn seeded Aqueous Chemical Growth of ZnO nanorods. 3D, uniformly aligned ZnO nanorods are produced. The increase in active surface area, up to 4.4 times in the cases presented here, provides a dramatic increase in photocatalytic performance, while other applications are also proposed.

Highlights

Zinc Oxide (ZnO) is a widely studied metal oxide semiconductor, due to its potential use in a variety of applications, such as gas sensors[1], transparent electrodes in solar cells[2, 3], phototocatalysts[4], nanolasers[5], photoelectrochemical cells for hydrogen generation from water splitting[6, 7], photoluminescent devices[8, 9], and organic light emitting diodes[10, 11]
We demonstrate an innovative method for the fabrication of, fully three-dimensional (3D) ZnO nanorods-coated structures, involving the seeded hydrothermal growth of ZnO NRs on a 3D scaffold of an organic-inorganic hybrid material (SZ2080), fabricated by Multi-Photon Lithography (MPL)[6]
The growth of ZnO NRs is based on a two-step procedure that requires the deposition of a metallic zinc (Zn) seed layer onto the polymeric scaffold, employing pulsed laser deposition (PLD), followed by an aqueous chemical growth of ZnO nanocrystalline rods out of an aqueous solution of zinc nitrate hexahydrate (Zn(NO3)2) in the presence of ammonia[23]

Summary

Introduction

Zinc Oxide (ZnO) is a widely studied metal oxide semiconductor, due to its potential use in a variety of applications, such as gas sensors[1], transparent electrodes in solar cells[2, 3], phototocatalysts[4], nanolasers[5], photoelectrochemical cells for hydrogen generation from water splitting[6, 7], photoluminescent devices[8, 9], and organic light emitting diodes[10, 11]. For the fabrication of pure and doped ZnO nanostructures several chemical and physical synthesis methods have been adopted, including vapour-liquid-solid (VLS) method[5, 13], chemical vapour deposition (CVD)[14], thermal evaporation[15], electrochemical deposition in porous membranes[16], and aqueous chemical growth (ACG)[17] Most of these growth techniques have been used to control the distribution of ZnO nanostructures on substrates such as glass, Si wafers, flexible organic films, wires, optical fibres, and inside polymeric 3D structures[18,19,20,21,22]. We present ZnO nanostructured 3D architectures prepared with the proposed methodology The properties of these structures, regarding morphology, structure, and fluorescence are examined. We demonstrate the essential role of the Zn seed layer for the uniform distribution of ZnO NRs over the surfaces of the assembly

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