Morphological and structural characterization of single-crystal ZnO nanorod arrays on flexible and non-flexible substrates.

Omar F Farhat,Mohammed K M Ali,Mohd M Halim,Nageh K Allam,Mat J Abdullah

doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.73

Abstract

We report a facile synthesis of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod arrays using an optimized, chemical bath deposition method on glass, PET and Si substrates. The morphological and structural properties of the ZnO nanorod arrays were investigated using various techniques such as field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements, which revealed the formation of dense ZnO nanorods with a single crystal, hexagonal wurtzite structure. The aspect ratio of the single-crystal ZnO nanorods and the growth rate along the (002) direction was found to be sensitive to the substrate type. The lattice constants and the crystallite size of the fabricated ZnO nanorods were calculated based on the XRD data. The obtained results revealed that the increase in the crystallite size is strongly associated with the growth conditions with a minor dependence on the type of substrate. The Raman spectroscopy measurements confirmed the existence of a compressive stress in the fabricated ZnO nanorods. The obtained results illustrated that the growth of high quality, single-crystal ZnO nanorods can be realized by adjusting the synthesis conditions.

Highlights

Metal oxides are multifunctional materials with a wide range of applications encompassing photonic devices, high-K dielectrics, sensors, implants, and solar cells [1,2]
The corresponding energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis reveals the existence of Zn and O, which corresponds to the characteristic composition of zinc oxide (ZnO), without the presence any impurities or substrate signal
This implies that the aspect ratio of the single-crystal ZnO nanorods along the (002) direction is sensitive to the substrate type

Summary

Introduction

Metal oxides are multifunctional materials with a wide range of applications encompassing photonic devices, high-K dielectrics, sensors, implants, and solar cells [1,2]. We report an optimized CBD method, employed to fabricate single-crystal ZnO nanorod arrays on flexible and non-flexible substrates at low temperature. ZnO nanorod arrays were grown on three different substrates (glass, PET and Si) by the chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique.

Results

Conclusion