Synthesis of grass-like ZnSe nanostructures on graphene oxide and their excellent field emission properties

Abstract

Setaria palmifolia-like, turfgrass-like and needle-like zinc selenide (ZnSe) nanograsses have been successfully grown on graphene oxide sheets (GOss) by a hydrothermal method. The morphologies and compositions of as-synthesized graphene oxide (GO)/ZnSe nanograsses have been characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The morphologies of ZnSe nanograsses on GOss were highly manipulated by adjusting the addition amount of diethanolamine. The field emission (FE) properties of graphene oxide (GO)/ZnSe nanograsses were measured and found to be strongly influenced by the morphologies of ZnSe. The results show that GO/ZnSe nanograsses composed of nanorods have best FE properties with a low turn-on electric field of 4.5Vμm−1 and a high field enhancement factor of 2715 among all the samples.