Study on the Growth and Mechanism of Zinc Nanostructures on an Ionic Liquid Substrate

Abstract

Compared with solid substrates, liquid substrates exhibit isotropic behavior due to the lack of a lattice and because the interaction between liquid substrates and metal atoms is weaker. Therefore, an in-depth understanding about the growth mechanism of metal atoms on liquid substrates is both fundamentally interesting and technically important. Herein, we report the growth of zinc nanocrystals, including hexagonal nanoplates and one-dimensional nanowires, on an ionic liquid substrate without catalyst using thermal deposition method. The average height of terraced steps is ∼18.6 nm with all steps height larger than 5.7 nm, corresponding to a critical value in determining the growth rate along [001] and [010] direction based on our theoretical calculations. Moreover, one-dimensional Zn nanowires can be also observed. The longest Zn nanowire can grow up to ∼35.2 μm. A theoretical model is then proposed to explain the formation of hexagonal zinc nanoplates and nanowires, qualitatively and quantitatively. The...