Selective growth of ZnO nanorods by thickness contrast in In-doped ZnO quantum dots seed layer

Abstract

Selective growth of ZnO nanorods (NRs) have been demonstrated using thickness contrast in In-doped ZnO (IZO) quantum dot (QD) seed layer. The use of IZO QD as a seed layer has enabled the direct growth of ZnO NRs on soft substrates such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Depending on the annealing temperature, the seed layers show different grain sizes: as the annealing temperature increases, the seed grain size also increases accordingly. Interestingly, the hydrothermal growth of ZnO NRs has been found to depend on the seed grain size: the larger grain seed sample shows earlier start of growth compared to smaller seed grain counterpart. The same growth behavior has been found in the growth of ZnO NRs on seed layers having different thickness, due again to the difference in seed grain size. To advantageously exploit the observed growth behavior, the IZO QDs seed layers have been patterned by soft lithographic technique, which led to the formation of alternating thin/thick region periodically. On this patterned seed surface, the thin regions showed earlier start of NRs growth compared to thick regions, enabling the spatially selective growth of ZnO NRs. When applied for acetone gas sensors, the selectively grown sample showed better performance than the non-selectively grown counterpart. The low resistance in air, due to increased amount of chemisorbed oxygen, has been found to be responsible for the inferior sensor performance with non-selectively grown sample.