Synthesis and characterization of 1-dimensional zinc oxide by solvothermal process

Abstract

Nanostructured ZnO materials with various sizes, morphologies, defects and impurities have been prepared by many synthetic methodologies with their unique properties. The various techniques include physical, chemical and electrochemical methods to synthesis highly ordered and well aligned 1D ZnO nanorods. Most of the synthetic methods follow high temperature and sophisticated equipments in addition with the high-cost procedures to obtain highly oriented nanostructure materials. In the literature, the growth of ZnO nanostructures were studied using various processes that involve the coating of a substrate with nano sized ZnO seeds and followed by decomposition of Zn-organic complexes under mild hydrothermal conditions. Moreover, aligned nanorods are achieved on a lattice matching substrate using a catalyzing metal particle, often gold nanoparticles and platinum (Pt) films, to initiate or guide the growth were pre-coated on the growth surface that functions as a catalyst for the growth of ZnO nanorods. In particular, a well-ordered and highly oriented ZnO nanorod directly grown on a zinc substrate was recognized, in recent years, by a simple direct surface-oxidation of zinc metal surface that capitulate zinc ions into the solution under a hydrothermal condition. In the course of studies on the synthesis of inorganic materials in organic media as co-solvent, by a solvothermal process resulted in products with a high degree of crystallinity and high aspect ratio obtained in various forms, such as nanorods/nanowires/nanoparticles, of anatase $TiO_2$, iron oxides $(\alpha-Fe_2O_3 and Fe_3O_4)$, CdE (E = S, Se, Te), $CdWO_4$, $Ca_{10}(PO_4)_6(OH)_2$ and $WO_3$. Nevertheless, it still remains a momentous challenge to obtain controllable growth of well ordered nano-arrays. In this study, growths of 1D ZnO nanostructures on the large area surface of single and polycrystal zinc metal substrates through a simple low temperature solvothermal process were investigated. The...