Structural analysis of zinc oxide nanostructures and study of the influence of the hydrothermal method on nanowire preparation

The researchers paid increasingly more attention to the creation of materials which would be cheap, have good sensitivity and be, environmentally benign. Zinc oxide (ZnO) has multiple applications due to its unique physical, chemical, and optoelectronic properties. This makes it ideal for usage on solar cells, light-emitting diodes, and gas sensors. There is increasing interest in ZnO nanostructures especially the one-dimensional forms since they can easily and rapidly respond to external influences of temperature and humidity. High-quality ZnO nanowires are of great scientific interest, however, there is no universal method to produce them in a simple and economical way with all important parameters accurately specified.

The objective of this study to produce more oriented and purer one-dimensional ZnO nanostructures using a simple and fast method, in this case the synthesis of ZnO Nanowires. Synthesis of ZnO nanowires was accomplished in a two-step process. The initial step involved applying a seed layer onto the surface of the substrate that was aimed to anchor ZnO molecules. The molecular structures were observed using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Nanowires’ second step included growing the structures with the use of a hydrothermal method, where the size of the synthesized ZnO nanowires was 100-150 nm.

The findings show that this approach leads to the successful fabrication of ZnO nanowires with great uniformity, large surface area and well-defined geometric shapes. The nanowires are also shown to possess good structural as well as chemical integrity, establishing their application in the domains of optoelectronic devices and gas sensors. In addition, the hydrothermal method is simple and reliable, and ZnO nanowires appear to be of good quality; therefore, this method is low-cost and easily up-scaled with great potential for industrial applications.