Surface morphology of zinc oxide nanorods grown by hydrothermal deposition technique

Abstract

AbstractZinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods grown by hydrothermal techniques are of great interest in photonic and electronic device applications because they offer low cost, low temperature deposition techniques compared to conventional molecular beam vapor deposition and sputtering methods. Our studies of ZnO nanorods grown by hydrothermal technique on indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates at 90 °C for 9 hours resulted in uniform growth of hexagonally shaped closed nanorod structures. We used scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to map changes in surface morphology of ZnO nanorods grown on various substrates. In this work we investigated the effects of temperature and the choice of conductive substrate on the size and shape of ZnO nanorods grown by hydrothermal growth. In particular, we studied the changes in surface morphology of ZnO nanorods deposited on ITO, ZnO coated glass, Aluminum coated glass, conducting transparent oxide (CTO) glass and mylar substrates. We will present quantitative data on changes in diameter and shape of ZnO nanorods as the growth substrate is varied. We will also discuss the surface morphology of ZnO nanorods grown by hydrothermal techniques at 95 °C on ZnO thin film substrate fabricated by sputter coating of ZnO on glass substrate. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)