Hydrothermal Growth of Vertically Aligned ZnO Nanorods Using a Biocomposite Seed Layer of ZnO Nanoparticles

Abstract

Well aligned ZnO nanorods have been prepared by a low temperature aqueous chemical growth method, using a biocomposite seed layer of ZnO nanoparticles prepared in starch and cellulose bio polymers. The effect of different concentrations of biocomposite seed layer on the alignment of ZnO nanorods has been investigated. ZnO nanorods grown on a gold-coated glass substrate have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) techniques. These techniques have shown that the ZnO nanorods are well aligned and perpendicular to the substrate, and grown with a high density and uniformity on the substrate. Moreover, ZnO nanorods can be grown with an orientation along the c-axis of the substrate and exhibit a wurtzite crystal structure with a dominant (002) peak in an XRD spectrum and possessed a high crystal quality. A photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy study of the ZnO nanorods has revealed a conventional near band edge ultraviolet emission, along with emission in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum due to defect emission. This study provides an alternative method for the fabrication of well aligned ZnO nanorods. This method can be helpful in improving the performance of devices where alignment plays a significant role.

Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) Based on ZnO Nanorods for Biological Applications

“…Raman measurements of nanometer-sized biomarkers secreted from living cells require confirmation of the suitability of cells for SERS substrates. The toxic endogenous properties of gold nanoparticles have previously been reported [29], and ZnO nanorods are reported to be toxic to NIH 3 T3 fibroblasts [30]. Therefore, it is necessary to confirm whether the sensing chip is suitable for cell application through the evaluation of cytotoxicity, and cell culture and cell viability tests were carried out as follows.…”

Fabrication of an Electrochemical Sensor for Glucose Detection using ZnO Nanorods

“…The oxide layers naturally formed on zinc do not form a passivating film, which prevents its corrosion [5]. In the recent years, one dimensional ZnO nanorods are synthesized using the hydrothermal growth technique [6]. In this paper, an enzyme based amperometric electrochemical glucose sensor is reported.…”

Blue-shifted and picosecond amplified UV emission from aqueous chemical grown ZnO microrods

“…The shift may be due to the relative contributions of the excitonic recombination and its longitudinal optical (LO) phonon replicas and/or to the thermal effects caused by laser heating [26][27][28]. In contrast with ZnO micro/nanostructures similarly fabricated by ACG method [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]14,15] and to those prepared by different techniques [29][30][31], the microrods do not exhibit any visible defect-related emissions. This result implies that the as-prepared ZnO microrod samples are of good optical quality.…”

“…Among the techniques used, the aqueous chemical growth (ACG) method (often referred to as hydrothermal method or solution route) is a low cost, simple, and effective way to fabricate hexagonal and crystalline ZnO micro/nanostructures. Using tabletop equipment and few chemical precursors, ZnO rods [3][4][5][6][7][8][9], flowers or multipods [10][11][12], stars [13], prisms [14], and nanoparticles [15] are produced with high yield at relatively low temperatures. ZnO microrods prepared by ACG, for example, can be isolated and can be used for device fabrication [16].…”