Zinc Oxide Nanowire
Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a semiconductor with a wide band gap (3.37 eV) and a high-exciton binding energy (60 meV).1 Based on its unique properties, researchers have studied its potential application for optoelectronic devices, field emitters, solar cells, sensors and transparent electrodes.2 ZnO is a versatile functional material that has a diverse group of growth morphologies, such as nano-combs, nano-rings, nano-helixes or nano-springs, nano-belts, nanowires and nanocages.3 Of these various nanostructures, ZnO nanowires are of greatest interest due to their quasi one-dimensional (1-D) structure that exhibits quantum confinement effects and high surface to volume ratios. The nanowires can be considered a 1-D channel for absorption, emission, and transport of electrons, holes, and photons. The special geometric structure can lead to strong confinement effects on the carriers and photons, which could result in various novel optical and electrical properties for device applications such as short wavelength LEDs and lasers of nanometer size.4 A number of potential applications have emerged in areas such as low-voltage and short-wavelength optoelectronics, photonics5, actuators, magnetic materials and solar cells,6 etc..
ZnO nanowires are commonly synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD)7, physical vapor deposition8, electrodeposition9,10, thermal evaporation11, aqueous synthesis12 and solvothermal technique13. However, Using catalysts to grow aligned ZnO nanorods14 may leave some catalyst impurities into the nanostructures, possibly contaminating the purity of ZnO nanorods and influencing their properties.2 There still exists a need to develop a method to produce ZnO nanowires in great quantities because large-scale production is an initial term in the process of widespread commercialization of ZnO nanowires.15
ACS Material used a simple but effective method to produce large quantities of ZnO nanowires. Mixed ZnO and activated carbon powder were used as source materials, synthesized ZnO nanowires through gas phase method. We offer high-quality ZnO nanowires with a hexagonal cylindrical single crystal structure. The wire diameters range between 50-120 nm and lengths between 5-50 µm while the aspect ratio is 300-500 (Figure 1).
Figure 1 SEM image of ACS Material ZnO nanowires
ACS Material Products:
Reference
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