Synthesis and properties of aligned ZnO microtube arrays

Two kinds of different aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) crystal microtube arrays were prepared on silicon (1 0 0) substrates by using of a simple thermal chemical reaction vapor transport deposition method. The synthesizing processes were done by using of heating the mixture of zinc oxide and graphite powders at 1150 °C in a quartz tube with one side opened to the air. The O₂ gas (99.9%) and air had been introduced as the assistant gases, respectively. Both the flow rates were 100 ml/min. And the temperature of the Si (1 0 0) substrate region was about 400 °C. There is no other metal catalyst on the Si wafers in the process. After growing for 30 min, one kind of synthesized sample is trumpet-shaped hexagonal microtube arrays assisted with O₂ gas and another produced sample is the uniform hexagonal microtubes only assisted with air. As the increasing of preparing time, their maximal lengths can range from several 10 μm to mm scale. The microstructure, room temperature photoluminescence properties and growth mechanism of both aligned microtube arrays were investigated and discussed.     

ZnO thin film with nanorod arrays applied to fluid sensor

A ZnO guiding layer with nanorod arrays grown on a 90°-rotated ST-cut (42°45) quartz substrate was used to fabricate a Love wave fluid sensor. ZnO nanorod arrays synthesized on the guiding layer enhance the sensitivity of the flow rate. ZnO thin films were deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering and ZnO nanorod arrays were then synthesized on the thin films via the hydrothermal method. The crystalline structure and surface morphology of ZnO thin films and nanorod arrays were examined by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The effects of the thickness of ZnO thin film and the surface morphology of ZnO nanorod arrays on the sensitivity of flow rate were investigated. A linear response between flow rate and the return loss of the sensor with one-port resonator type can be obtained by adjusting the thickness of ZnO thin film and the length of nanorod arrays.     

Growth and Characterization of Trumpet-Shaped ZnO Microtube Arrays on Si Substrates

Aligned trumpet-shaped zinc oxide microtube arrays have been successfully prepared on silicon （100） substrates via the chemical vapour deposition method with a mixture of ZnO and active carbon powders as reactants. The results show that two types of trumpet-shaped ZnO microtubes can be obtained. A plausible growth mechanism based on the studies of scanning electron microscopy （SEM）, transmission electron microscopy （TEM）, x-ray diffraction （XRD）, and room-temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy is proposed and discussed. The initial metastable zinc-rich ZnOx embryos play a key role in the formation of trumpet-shaped ZnO microtubes. On the different surfaces of metastable zinc-rich ZnOx （x 〈 1）, embryos exhibit different stabilities and resistivities to oxidation; these tiny embryos are gradually extended with different growing rates along the directions of its long axis and circular boundary around its oxide shell. Just this special reason creates the formation of trumpet-shaped microtubes and results in the inerratic and imperfect hexagonshaped cross section that appears. Moreover, the analytical results also show that the as-synthesized ZnO microtube arrays can exhibit better room-temperature photoluminescence behaviour.     

Gas sensing properties of single crystalline ZnO nanowires grown by thermal evaporation technique

The ZnO NWs were applied as effective material for the fabrication of ethanol (C₂H₅OH) and carbon monoxide (CO) gas sensor. The ZnO NWs were grown by thermal evaporation techniques on non-catalytic Si (100) substrates. The average width and length of ZnO NWs was 60 nm and 20 μm, respectively and they were single crystalline in nature. The maximum response was 51.64 at 300 °C for 1000 ppm of CO gas, while 104.23 at 400 °C for 250 ppm of ethanol gas. The response of ZnO NWs was very high for ethanol compared to the CO, whereas the recovery time for ethanol was very poor compare to CO gas. The response of ZnO NWs was about 25 times higher for ethanol compare to CO, at 400 °C for 100 ppm of each gas. The high response for ethanol is related to electron donating effect of ethanol (10e^?) which was higher than the CO gas (2e^?). The high response of ZnO NWs was attributed to large contacting surface area for electrons, oxygen, target gas molecule, and abundant channels for gas diffusion.     

Facile synthesis of SnO2–ZnO core–shell nanowires for enhanced ethanol-sensing performance

The design of core–shell heteronanostructures is powerful tool to control both the gas selectivity and the sensitivity due to their hybrid properties. In this work, the SnO₂–ZnO core–shell nanowires (NWs) were fabricated via two-step process comprising the thermal evaporation of the single crystalline SnO₂ NWs core and the spray-coating of the grainy polycrystalline ZnO shell for enhanced ethanol sensing performance. The as-obtained products were investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and photoluminescence. The ethanol gas-sensing properties of pristine SnO₂ and ZnO–SnO₂ core–shell NW sensors were studied and compared. The gas response to 500 ppm ethanol of the core–shell NW sensor increased to 33.84, which was 12.5-fold higher than that of the pristine SnO₂ NW sensor. The selectivity of the core–shell NW sensor also improved. The response to 100 ppm ethanol was about 14.1, whereas the response to 100 ppm liquefied petroleum gas, NH₃, H₂, and CO was smaller, and ranged from 2.5 to 5.3. This indicates that the core–shell heterostructures have great potential for use as gas sensing materials.     

Preparation and characterisation of ZnFe2O4/ZnO polymer nanocomposite sensors for the detection of alcohol vapours

During the last 10 years, a large interest has developed in the preparation of nanocomposite structures by embedding inorganic nanoparticles into polymeric materials. These materials combine the properties of the inorganic fillers with the processability and flexibility of polymers. The versatility of polymer nanocomposite systems is of special interest to the gas sensor industry where arrays of polymer/carbon black composites have been used to identify gases and odours. These polymer gas sensors provide selectivity based on their chemical structures and operate at room temperature, which provide advantages over thick-film metal oxide gas sensors. ZnFe₂O₄ and ZnO have excellent stability, high sensitivity, low fabrication complexity and moderate operating temperatures, which are ideal properties for a gas sensing material. In this work, the development of a thick-film ZnFe₂O₄/ZnO sensor, which operates at room temperature and a drop-coated conducting polymer composite sensor containing 30 w/w% ZnFe₂O₄/ZnO nanoparticles is discussed. The sensors were tested in a fully automated test rig and showed promising results for the detection of alcohol vapours.     

Alignment-controlled hydrothermal growth of well-aligned ZnO nanorod arrays

ZnO nanorod arrays (ZNAs) were prepared via a two-step seeding and solution hydrothermal growth process. Effects of preparing parameters such as seed layer, colloid concentration, substrate and precursor concentration, on the alignment control of ZNAs were systematically investigated. The deviation angle of ZnO nanorods was measured to evaluate the alignment of arrays. Results show that seed layer not only controls the vertical orientation of ZNAs, but also the compactness of ZNAs. Altering colloid concentration and substrate can influence the microstructure of ZnO seed layer and affect the ordered alignment of ZNAs. The precursor concentration has an insignificant effect on the alignment of ZNAs but has great impact on the morphology of ZNAs. Alignment-controlled and well-aligned ZnO nanorods with different diameter and aspect ratio can be obtained by properly controlling the preparing parameters. A growth mechanism was proposed for the growth of ZnO nanorods.     

低温CVD法在玻璃衬底上制备ZnO纳米线阵列

采用化学气相沉积(CVD)法在镀Cr(20nm)的玻璃衬底上,低温制备了ZnO纳米线阵列。利用扫描电子显微镜(SEM)和X射线衍射(XRD)对样品的表面形貌和微结构进行了分析表征。结果表明:源分解温度1350℃,衬底温度450～500℃,氩气流量为35sccm时,ZnO纳米线在玻璃衬底上呈现有序生长;XRD谱图中只观测到ZnO(002)衍射峰。表明制备的纳米线阵列具有高度c轴择优取向生长特性和较高的结晶质量。     

海胆状ZnO纳米线阵列的制备及其光学性能

采用一种低成本的有效方法制备出了有序排列的海胆状ZnO纳米线阵列。首先利用自组装的方法得到了单层的聚苯乙烯(PS)小球,以其为模板用水热法在小球表面生长ZnO纳米线,得到了由PS小球和ZnO纳米线构成的海胆状结构。纳米线的直径均一,长度可通过水热反应时间进行控制。利用这种方法制备的一维ZnO纳米结构在传感器、太阳能电池及光催化领域有潜在的应用价值。     

One step synthesis of vertically aligned ZnO nanowire arrays with tunable length

Length control of ZnO nanowire arrays is a valuable concern for both fundamental research and future device application. In this article, vertically aligned ZnO nanowire arrays were synthesized by a seed layer catalyzed vapor phase transport method in a single experiment cycle. The length of these nanowire arrays exhibits a quasi-continuous evolution. It was found that the type and flow rate of carrier gas have a significant influence on the length modulation of ZnO arrays along the tube. A feasible route to tune the length of ZnO nanowire arrays from several micrometers to nearly 100 μm could be achieved by adjusting proper deposition position and carrier gas.     

Investigation of electrical and optoelectronic properties of zinc oxide nanowires

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires have been synthesized by using tubular furnace chemical vapor deposition technique. The morphology, chemical composition and crystal structure of as-synthesized ZnO nanowires were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. Four-terminal current-voltage (I-V) measurements were employed to study the electrical conductance of ZnO nanowires under various testing gas environments for gas sensing purpose. The I-V curves at temperature ranging from 150 to 300 K were recorded in the testing chamber under vacuum. The Arrhenius plot shows perfect linear relationship between the logarithm of the current I and inverse temperature 1/T. The donor level of the semiconducting nanowires is about 326 meV. The I-V behaviors were found to be reversible and repeatable with testing gases. The electrical conductivity was enhanced by a factor of four with ambient CO gas compared to that in vacuum and other testing gases. The optoelectronic properties of the ZnO nanowires were obtained by two-terminal I-V measurement method while the nanowires were illuminated by a ruby laser. The electrical conductivity was increased by 60% when the laser was present in comparison to that when the laser was off. Those significant changes suggest that nano-devices constructed by the ZnO nanowires could be used in gas sensing and optical switching applications.     

Investigating the effect of gas absorption on the electromechanical and electrochemical behavior of graphene/ZnO structure,suitable for highly selective and sensitive gas sensors

Graphene/ZnO hybrid was used, for the first time, to fabricate a highly selective and sensitive graphene based gas sensor by a combination of electromechanical and electrochemical characteristics of the graphene. ZnO nanowires in our fabricated sensor have two important roles: as the reductant of graphene oxide to obtain graphene and as an efficient electromechanical actuator due to their piezoelectric properties. To investigate the operation of the fabricated sensor as a gas sensor, a selected set of chemical vapors were introduced to the structure. It was found that chemical vapors change the resonance frequency of the graphene/ZnO structure, as well as the electrical resistivity of the sensor. The observed variation of the mechanical and electrical characteristics of the graphene/ZnO in response to gas exposure entitles the graphene/ZnO based sensor as a highly selective/sensitive device for gas sensing applications with distinctive signatures for different gas species.     

Hierarchically assembled porous ZnO microstructures and applications in a gas sensor

This paper presents a facile, low-cost and pollution-free route to prepare porous metal oxide nanomaterials. Hierarchically assembled ZnO microstructures with multi-scaled porosity were obtained by calcining the flower-like assembly of a basic zinc carbonate (BZC) precursor which was synthesized by a facile low-temperature (100 ^°C) homogenous precipitation without using any organic solvent or surfactant. A gas sensor based on the porous ZnO sample exhibited higher response to ethanol and formaldehyde gases than commercial ZnO powder. The facile preparation method and the improved property derived from the hierarchically porous microstructure are of great significance in the synthesis and application of nanomaterials.     

Comparison of bismuth emitting liquid metal ion sources

In this paper, we report on studying of ZnO nanowire mats as an electrical nanomaterial with particular interest in their interaction with various gas surroundings for gas sensing characteristics. The ZnO nanowires were synthesized on sapphire substrates using a horizontal tube furnace. The techniques of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) were applied to determine the as-grown ZnO nanowires’ morphological and crystal structures, chemical composition and electronic states. Four-terminal current-voltage (I–V) measurements were used to examine the electrical conductance of the ZnO nanowire mats exposed to various testing gases with reference to the vacuum condition. Gas exposure experiments were conducted in a custom-built environmental chamber, which was filled with different testing gases. We observed the current being significantly influenced with ambient CO gas. The I–V behavior of CO gas was also found to be reversible and repeatable after the chamber evacuation, which indicates that the ZnO nanowire mats can be used for gas sensing purposes. A possible interactive model of nanowires and testing gas molecules is proposed to elucidate the sensing selective and sensitive mechanism for gas sensors.     

Guided mode lasing in ZnO nanorod structures

Quasi-two-dimensional arrays of nearly parallel hexagonal ZnO nanorods and a three-dimensional cylindrical microstructure consisting of ZnO nanorods have been grown by low pressure chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and carbothermal evaporation technologies, respectively. The technology ensures high optical quality of the produced nanostructures so as to act as a gain medium for stimulated emission in the ultraviolet spectral region in combination with high quality factor laser resonators. Multiple sharp lasing peaks were realized from the produced structures under nanosecond pulse optical excitation. The lasing peaks display successive onset and saturation with increasing excitation power density in accordance with the lasing behavior of guided modes in ZnO nanorods. The produced structures are expected to find applications in integrated nanoscale optoelectronics, photonics, and sensor technologies.     

Growth analysis of novel ZnO nanotetrapods with tubular legs from aspect of reagent’s vapor pressure and growth temperature

In this article, novel ZnO nanotetrapods with tubular legs was successfully synthesized using mixed powder of Zn, ZnO, and carbon as source. The growth process was analyzed at large, and a two-step growth model, viz. initial deficient-oxidation and latter second-volatilization, was proposed to explain the formation of tubular leg of ZnO nanotetrapod. In the growth model, the high Zn vapor pressure and high growth temperature were considered as two crucial factors determining the growth behavior. Zn-rich ZnO nanotetrapod formed under high Zn vapor pressure at the initial stage. These redundant Zn clusters coexisted in ZnO lattice as interstitial Zn. The following second-volatilization of interstitial Zn under high growth temperature led to formation of tubular leg. Four other experiments were designed to analyze the growth behavior under high and low Zn vapor pressure and growth temperature, respectively, and these experimental results further confirmed the validity of our growth model. Our experiment proposed a feasible synthesis route to prepare hollow nanostructures controlled by the vapor pressure and growth temperature. Furthermore, these novel ZnO nanotetrapods might have potential application as building blocks for functional nanodevices.     

Preparation of Cu-Zn/ZnO core-shell nanocomposite by wire electrical explosion and precipitation process in aqueous solution and CO sensing properties

Cu-Zn/ZnO nanocomposites with a novel core-shell structure have been prepared by a surface precipitation process in aqueous solution. X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy are employed to analyze the structure and morphology of the present products. The influence of the annealing temperature on the core-shell structure of the nanocomposites is investigated, and a possible growth model is proposed. Furthermore, the gas sensors based on the Cu-Zn/ZnO nanocomposites are fabricated and tested, which exhibits high sensitivity and fast response to CO. The best results are obtained for the sensor based on the film annealed at 350 °C, which shows that the sensitivity is about 6.3 when the sensor is exposed to 100 ppm CO at the operating temperature of 240 °C. The possible sensing mechanism of the Cu-Zn/ZnO sensing film has also been discussed.     

ZnO纳米/微米结构传感器对乙醇气敏性研究

采用化学气相法分别在石英舟内表面和单晶硅衬底上制备了ZnO微米片、纳米线、微米四足体以及微米球4种结构,并制作了相应的气敏传感器。扫描电子显微镜、气敏测试仪等结果显示：合成的ZnO纳米/微米结构尺寸在200 nm~100 μm之间,传感器最佳工作电流区间为120~130 mA,其中微米四足体制备的传感器灵敏度高达127,展现出优异的气敏特性。在4种结构中,微米四足体材料内部的V_O缺陷含量最高,结合气敏测试与荧光光谱结果,我们认为材料内部的V_O缺陷含量是影响材料气敏特性的最重要因素。     

Synthesis and H2 sensing properties of aligned ZnO nanotubes

Aligned ZnO nanotubes with the outer radius of about 200 nm were synthesized by a two-step approach, which involves electrospinning and sputtering techniques. The ZnO nanotubes are polycrystalline hexagonal structure, indicted by XRD and TEM analysis. The ZnO nanotubes show sensing property to H₂. The sensor response of the aligned nanotubes to 100 ppm H₂ increases from 2.3 to 3.6 with the temperature increasing from 200 to 400 °C. Beside, the sensor response of the ZnO nanotubes increases compared with that of the ZnO film prepared under the same condition.     

超长氧化锌纳米线的制备及其气敏性能和紫外传感应用研究

采用一种无需催化剂和载气的简便碳热还原法制得长度约为100 μm、直径约为500 nm、长径比达到200的超长ZnO纳米线,讨论了Si基底位置、沉积时间以及反应物原料的量对ZnO纳米线形貌的影响。对ZnO纳米线的气敏性能进行研究,结果表明：在工作温度为350 ℃时,ZnO纳米线传感器能够很好地检测酒精气体,具有选择性好、响应恢复快的优点,且最低检测体积分数为5×10^-6。另外,通过一种简单、实用的介电泳法制得基于ZnO纳米线的紫外传感器。在365 nm紫外灯照射下,光电流增加了13%;而在254 nm紫外灯照射时,光电流则没发生变化,说明该传感器对不同波长的紫外光有一定的选择性。