Abstract
Zinc oxide, ZnO , a popular semiconductor material with a wide band gap (3.37 eV) and high binding energy of the exciton (60 meV), has numerous applications such as in optoelectronics, chemical/biological sensors, and drug delivery. This project aims to (i) optimize the operating conditions for growth of ZnO nanostructures using the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, and (ii) investigate the effects of coupling radiofrequency (RF) plasma to the CVD method on the quality of ZnO nanostructures. First, ZnO nanowires were synthesized using a home-made reaction setup on gold-coated and non-coated Si (100) substrates at 950 °C. XRD, SEM, EDX, and PL measurements were used for characterizations and it was found that a deposition duration of 10 minutes produced the most well-defined ZnO nanowires. SEM analysis revealed that the nanowires had diameters ranging from 30-100 mm and lengths ranging from 1-4 µm. In addition, PL analysis showed strong UV emission at 380 nm, making it suitable for UV lasing. Next, RF plasma was introduced for 30 minutes. Both remote and in situ RF plasma produced less satisfactory ZnO nanostructures with poorer crystalline structure, surface morphology, and optical properties due to etching effect of energetic ions produced from plasma. However, a reduction in plasma discharge duration to 10 minutes produced thicker and shorter ZnO nanostructures. Based on experimentation conducted, it is insufficient to conclude that RF plasma cannot aid in producing well-defined ZnO nanostructures. It can be deduced that the etching effect of energetic ions outweighed the increased oxygen radical production in RF plasma nanofabrication.
Highlights
Among all metal oxide nanoparticles, zinc oxide, ZnO, stands out as one of the most versatile materials due to its diverse properties and functionalities
It is insufficient to conclude that RF plasma cannot aid in producing well-defined ZnO nanostructures
X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD) diffraction patterns of gold-coated samples reflected most of the ZnO peaks, indicating successful growth of crystalline ZnO nanostructures
Summary
Among all metal oxide nanoparticles, zinc oxide, ZnO, stands out as one of the most versatile materials due to its diverse properties and functionalities. ZnO has a wide band gap of 3.37 eV which makes it a very suitable semiconductor material. It has a high binding exciton energy of 60 meV at room temperature (RT) and pressure.[1] Due to these unique properties, there has been increasing studies done on ZnO nanostructures, leading to its applications in many different areas such as chemical and biological sensors, solar cells, light emitting diodes, drug delivery, lasers and composite materials.[2]. ZnO nanostructures have unique optical, electrical, mechanical and chemical properties due to their extremely small size which causes quantum confinement effects. ZnO nanostructures exhibit piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties due to a lack of center of symmetry in its wurtzite structure.[4]
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