Position controlled and seed/catalyst free growth of ZnO nanorod arrays on reduced graphene oxide nanosheets

Abstract

A new type of seed/catalyst-free and selective-growth process is developed for in situ grown vertically-aligned ZnO nanorods on the reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanosheets. The dense and single-crystalline ZnO nanorods have been successfully grow on rGO nanosheets with the position- and size-controlled. The effect of rGO layer on the ZnO nanorods and the growth mechanism were investigated. The position of ZnO nanorod arrays correlates well with the size and position of rGO nanosheets, which is determined by dangling bonds such as oxygen-containing groups on rGO surface. Meanwhile, ZnO nanorods could grow laterally to form a continuous arrays with a large coverage on rGO substrates, which is mainly due to the step edges in rGO boundaries. The diameter and density of ZnO nanorods were readily determined by the growth temperature, and the length was easily controlled by the growth time. The absorption and PL spectrums suggest that ZnO nanorods/rGO have a strong UV absorption ranging from 330 to 375 nm and no obvious UV PL emission at room temperature, which indicates that the ZnO nanorods/rGO nanohybrids could be an excellent candidate for application in UV photodetectors. This work represents the success in seed/catalyst-free fabrication of aligned ZnO nanorod arrays directly on rGO nanosheets and the process can be readily scaled up for industrial applications of optoelectronic devices.