Catalyst-free large-quantity synthesis of ZnO nanorods by a vapor-solid growth mechanism : Structural and optical properties

Abstract The formation of high-density ZnO nanorods has been achieved by a vapor–solid growth mechanism using metallic zinc powder and oxygen gas as source materials for zinc and oxygen, respectively. General morphological studies indicated that the as-grown products are flower-shaped containing several hundreds of nanorods. The obtained nanorods have a diameter of 150–250 nm while their lengths are 5–10 μm. The detailed structural analysis revealed that the ZnO nanorods exhibit a single crystalline wurtzite hexagonal structure and preferentially oriented in the c -axis direction. Room temperature Raman scattering and photoluminescence studies found that the as-grown ZnO nanorods have good crystal quality with the hexagonal wurtzite phase containing very less structural defects.

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