Improving the property of ZnO nanorods using hydrogen peroxide solution

Abstract

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod arrays made by the hydrothermal method were treated with hydrogen peroxide (H 2O 2) solution through two different approaches. One is to immerse ZnO nanorod sample into H 2O 2 solution. The other is a pre-treatment of spin-coating H 2O 2 solution on the seed layer before the growth of the ZnO nanorods. In the first approach, we found that the ultraviolet (UV) emission peak of the ZnO nanorod photoluminescence (PL) spectra was strongly dependent on the immersion time. In the second approach, the H 2O 2 solution influences not only the quality of the seed layer, but also the amount of the oxygen interstitial defects in the ZnO nanorods grown thereon. As a result, the UV emission intensity from the ZnO nanorods is enhanced almost five times. The ZnO nanorod arrays with few oxygen interstitial defects are prepared by the hydrogen peroxide treatment and expected to enable the fabrication of optoelectronic device with excellent performance.