Low-Temperature Growth of ZnO Nanowires from Gravure-Printed ZnO Nanoparticle Seed Layers for Flexible Piezoelectric Devices

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires (NWs) are excellent candidates for the fabrication of energy harvesters, mechanical sensors, and piezotronic and piezophototronic devices. In order to integrate ZnO NWs into flexible devices, low-temperature fabrication methods are required that do not damage the plastic substrate. To date, the deposition of patterned ceramic thin films on flexible substrates is a difficult task to perform under vacuum-free conditions. Printing methods to deposit functional thin films offer many advantages, such as a low cost, low temperature, high throughput, and patterning at the same stage of deposition. Among printing techniques, gravure-based techniques are among the most attractive due to their ability to produce high quality results at high speeds and perform deposition over a large area. In this paper, we explore gravure printing as a cost-effective high-quality method to deposit thin ZnO seed layers on flexible polymer substrates. For the first time, we show that by following a chemical bath deposition (CBD) process, ZnO nanowires may be grown over gravure-printed ZnO nanoparticle seed layers. Piezo-response force microscopy (PFM) reveals the presence of a homogeneous distribution of Zn-polar domains in the NWs, and, by use of the data, the piezoelectric coefficient is estimated to be close to 4 pm/V. The overall results demonstrate that gravure printing is an appropriate method to deposit seed layers at a low temperature and to undertake the direct fabrication of flexible piezoelectric transducers that are based on ZnO nanowires. This work opens the possibility of manufacturing completely vacuum-free solution-based flexible piezoelectric devices.

Phase and structure development of spontaneously ambient-grown ZnO·xH2O and TiO2·xH2O nanostructures towards oxide single crystals

Stress-induced spontaneously ambient-grown orthorhombic ZnO·xH₂O and monoclinic TiO₂·xH₂O nanostructures transform into single-crystalline wurtzite ZnO and polycrystalline brookite TiO₂.

Intensify the application of ZnO-based nanodevices in humid environment: O2/H2 plasma suppressed the spontaneous reaction of amorphous ZnO nanowires

In this work, we have demonstrated that amorphous ZnO nanobranches (a-ZnO NBs) could spontaneously react from the crystalline ZnO NWs (c-ZnO NWs) at specific humid environment. The spontaneous reaction mechanism and result can be analyzed by humidity controlling and optical microscope (OM)/scanning electron microscope (SEM)/Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM)/transmission electron microscopy (TEM) system. We can make the c-ZnO NWs spontaneous reaction happen at different humid environments and suppress the a-ZnO NBs spontaneous reaction by oxygen/hydrogen plasma surface passivation. The hydrogen plasma surface treatment also can improve the UV sensing sensitivity more than twofold. This work provides the mechanism and methods of the a-ZnO NBs spontaneous growth and offers the passivation treatment for strengthening and enhancing ZnO-based nanodevice application in humid environment and UV light detection, respectively.

Custom-made morphologies of ZnO nanostructured films templated by a poly(styrene-block-ethylene oxide) diblock copolymer obtained by a sol-gel technique

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructured films are synthesized on silicon substrates to form different morphologies that consist of foamlike structures, wormlike aggregates, circular vesicles, and spherical granules. The synthesis involves a sol-gel mechanism coupled with an amphiphilic diblock copolymer poly(styrene-block-ethylene oxide), P(S-b-EO), which acts as a structure-directing template. The ZnO precursor zinc acetate dihydrate (ZAD) is incorporated into the poly(ethylene oxide) block. Different morphologies are obtained by adjusting the weight fractions of the solvents and ZAD. The sizes of the structure in solution for different sol-gels are probed by means of dynamic light scattering. Thin-film samples with ZnO nanostructures are prepared by spin coating and solution casting followed by a calcination step. On the basis of various selected combinations of weight fractions of the ingredients used, a ternary phase diagram is constructed to show the compositional boundaries of the investigated morphologies. The evolution and formation mechanisms of the morphologies are addressed in brief. The surface morphologies of the ZnO nanostructures are studied with SEM. The inner structures of the samples are probed by means of grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering to complement the SEM investigations. XRD measurements confirm the crystallization of the ZnO in the wurtzite phase upon calcination of the nanocomposite film in air. The optical properties of ZnO are analyzed by FTIR and UV/Vis spectroscopy.