Abstract
We report the synthesis of vertically aligned ZnO nanotubes (NTs) on paper substrates by low-temperature hydrothermal method. The growth of ZnO NTs on the paper substrate is discussed; further, the structural and optical properties are investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and cathodoluminescence (CL), and it was found that the ZnO NTs on paper substrate fulfill the structural and optical properties of ZnO NTs grown on other conventional substrates. This will be more beneficial in future usage of ZnO NTs in different fields and applications. Particularly, this approach opens the ways in research and development for high volume manufacturing of low-cost, flexible optoelectronics devices on disposable paper substrates and can be used in the future miniaturization trends.
Highlights
Zinc oxide (ZnO) with a wurtzite structure is an exceptionally important oxide semiconductor material especially to nanotechnology due to the easiness of growing of its nanostructures with diverse varieties
For that purpose some ZnO NTs were scratched off the substrate, and this was followed by ultrasonication in ethanol to disperse the nanotubes
It can be clearly seen that the ZnO crystal lattices are well oriented with the lattice spacing of 0.52 nm, which corresponds to the distance between two (0002) lattice planes, indicating that the [0001] is the preferred growth direction for the ZnO NTs
Summary
Zinc oxide (ZnO) with a wurtzite structure is an exceptionally important oxide semiconductor material especially to nanotechnology due to the easiness of growing of its nanostructures with diverse varieties. ZnO possesses diverse hierarchical nanostructures such as nanorods (NRs), nanowires (NWs), nanobelts (NBs), and nanotubes (NTs), and all these nanostructures can be synthesized under specific growth conditions on different substrates These one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures provided valuable information regarding the crystal growth mechanisms on the nanometer scale and exhibited high potential for fabricating novel nanodevices with superior performance [2]. Paper or paperlike substrates have so many advantages over other substrates with special properties like low cost, relative abundance, flexibility, light weight, non-hazardousness, less environmental impact, and full recyclability Various applications such as electronic displays [7], paper batteries [8], piezoelectric power generation [9], photodiodes [10], and organic thinfilm transistor [11] have already been realized on paper substrate. The growth of ZnO NTs on paper substrate is discussed and it was found that these ZnO NTs fulfill similar structural and optical properties of other ZnO NTs grown on different substrates
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