Solution Growth of Well-Aligned ZnO Nanorods on Sapphire Substrate

Vertically well-aligned ZnO nanorods arrays were synthesized on sapphire substrates by chemical bath deposition. Those sapphire substrates were seeded to control the density and orientation of ZnO nanorods using sol-gel method. Well-aligned and uniformly distributed ZnO nanorods in a large scale were obtained with strongly (002) preferential orientation. The structural properties were characterized by X-ray diffraction spectrometer and morphological characteristics were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, respectively. The ZnO nanorods are obvious hexangular wurtzite structure and preferentially oriented along the c-axis (002) and growth vertically to the substrates. The optical properties were further thoroughly studied. What is more, the influences of the strain between substrate and ZnO nanorods due to thickness of the ZnO seed-layer on the characteristics and optical properties of ZnO were also analyzed.