Abstract
In present work, the nano- and microscale tetrapods from zinc oxide were integrated on the surface of Aerographite material (as backbone) in carbon-metal oxide hybrid hierarchical network via a simple and single step magnetron sputtering process. The fabricated hybrid networks are characterized for morphology, microstructural and optical properties. The cathodoluminescence investigations revealed interesting luminescence features related to carbon impurities and inherent host defects in zinc oxide. Because of the wide bandgap of zinc oxide and its intrinsic defects, the hybrid network absorbs light in the UV and visible regions, however, this broadband photoabsorption behavior extends to the infrared (IR) region due to the dependence of the optical properties of ZnO architectures upon size and shape of constituent nanostructures and their doping by carbon impurities. Such a phenomenon of broadband photoabsorption ranging from UV to IR for zinc oxide based hybrid materials is novel. Additionally, the fabricated network exhibits strong visible light scattering behavior. The developed Aerographite/nanocrystalline ZnO hybrid network materials, equipped with broadband photoabsorption and strong light scattering, are very promising candidates for optoelectronic technologies.
Highlights
Nanowires[8,9,10,11,12,13]
Long duration zinc oxide (ZnO) deposition with subsequent heat treatment of specimens at 490 °C leads to the formation of micron-scale tetrapods weakly bound to the Aerographite/ZnO hybrid architecture which leads to the possibility of detaching the ZnO nano- and micro-tetrapods and gathering them on a foreign substrate by shaking up the as-prepared Aerographite/nanocrystalline ZnO (AG/ZnO) network (Supplementary Information, Figure S1)
The tetrapod growth is initiated by the emergence of a nucleus with subsequent formation of four arms and the nature of nuclei depends upon the involved synthesis process
Summary
Nanowires[8,9,10,11,12,13]. To efficiently utilize the excellent nanoscale features, three-dimensional (3D) forms of nanomaterials are the most appropriate candidates and currently significant efforts are being undertaken for the purpose of fabricating different types of 3D nanomaterials, from inorganic components[14,15,16,17,18], carbon/graphene[8,9,10,11,12,19,20], and others along with their wide range of applications. In contrast to above mentioned synthesis process, the present flame based approach offers a simple 3D nanostructuring using ZnO tetrapods and these networks can be further functionalized with other metal oxides for multifunctional applications[23,24] including fabrication of new varieties of 3D networks, for example, the carbon based highly porous 3D Aerographite (AG) material[43] and its other variants in form of GaN-Aerographite hybrid networks[44]. Here we report on the formation of hierarchical 3D Aerographite/nanocrystalline ZnO (AG/ZnO) architectures as a result of zinc oxide deposition on flexible Aerographite scaffolds by using RF magnetron sputtering techniques, and demonstrate that this hybrid 3D nanomaterial exhibits significant technological perspectives in terms of optical properties such as light emission, broadband photo-detection, and light scattering behaviour
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