Zinc Oxide and Copper Oxide Nanostructures: Fundamentals and Applications

Abstract

ABSTRACTCopper oxide (CuO) and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures complement each other since CuO is unintentional p-type and ZnO unintentional n-type. Using the low temperature chemical growth approach, the effect on morphology of varying the pH of the grown ZnO nanostructures and CuO micro structures is monitored. For both materials the variation of the pH was found to lead to a large variation on the morphology achieved. The grown ZnO NRs and CuO micro flowers material were used to fabricate devices. We demonstrate results from ZnO nanorods (NRs)/polymer p-n hybrid heterojunctions chemically grown on paper and using a process on paper for light emitting diodes (LEDs) applications as well as some large area light emitting diodes LEDs. The growth of CuO micro flowers indicated good quality material for sensing applications. The grown CuO micro flowers were employed as pH sensors. The results indicated a superior performance as expect due to the catalytic properties of this material.