Patterned growth of vertically-aligned ZnO nanorods on a flexible platform for feasible transparent and conformable electronics applications

Abstract

Despite the attractiveness of low temperature hydrothermal processes, the synthesis of vertical ZnO nanostructures has mostly been limited to rigid substrates. Moreover, patterned growth of nanostructures is also commonly carried out on rigid substrates, since conventional optical lithography is not easily applied to polymeric substrates, as focusing and reaction of the substrate with the organic solvent used in the lithography process prove to be a challenge. Here, we demonstrate the limited work on laser writing lithography patterned growth instead of the commonly used soft lithography patterned growth of nanorods on the transparent flexible substrate polyethylene terephthalate (PET) with a practical device demonstration. The visibly-transparent nanorods on the PET platform constitute a superior structural integrity with ohmic electro-conductivity even in a highly bent state. Accordingly, this can pave the way towards integration of vertically-aligned 1D nanostructures on a flexible platform for a transparent, conformable, shock-proof and lightweight product.

Resistive switching characteristics of sol–gel based ZnO nanorods fabricated on flexible substrates

“…4(c), the bending of the thin‐film device changes the CFs owing to cracks, eventually leading to changes in the LRS and causing erroneous RRAM operation. However, the vertically localized NRs are less likely to have cracks 10, such that the CFs formed in the NRs are less affected by bending, as depicted in Fig. 4(d).…”

Flexible resistive switching bistable memory devices using ZnO nanoparticles embedded in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) matrix and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS)

“… 38 Interestingly, ZnO–PVA nanocomposites/PEDOT:PSS exhibits the same diffraction patterns with ZnO–PVA nanocomposites, and the additional diffraction peaks at 26° and 52.9° have been observed due to the diffraction from PET substrate. 39 However, no diffraction peak can be observed for the pure PEDOT:PSS film except two diffraction peaks at 26° and 52.9° due to the diffraction from PET substrate, 39 demonstrating its poor crystalline structure.…”

ZnO Based Resistive Random Access Memory Device: A Prospective Multifunctional Next-Generation Memory

“…Hence, this may lead to inaccurate memory operations. Therefore, the use of NR is superior to the use of thin-film in FRRAM, since vertically localized NRs are not likely to form cracks and inaccurate operation [292] and less affected by bending situation as shown in Fig. 27(d).…”