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Zinc oxide nanowires in chemical bath on seeded substrates: Role of hexamine

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Abstract

We report a study of the role of hexamine in the seeded growth of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires by hydrothermal route. We show that the growth can be made highly anisotropic (aspect ratio >150) with almost no detectable increase in diameter (with time of hydrothermal growth) of the obtained nanowires. Results indicate that hexamine acts as a shape inducing molecule, by selectively capping the non-polar crystallographic planes of the zincite crystal. We observe nanowires with typical diameters of ∼30 nm and lengths exceeding several microns after a 24 h growth period at 60–95°C. Our observations, and reports from the literature, suggest that the concentration of the precursors in the chemical bath can significantly affect the growth rate of the wires. By keeping the concentration of the precursors in the bath at 1 mM, we have observed an extremely slow, but highly anisotropic growth of ZnO nanowires.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microelectronics, School of Engineering and Technology, Asian Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani, 12120, Thailand

    Abhilash Sugunan, Hemant C. Warad & Joydeep Dutta

  2. Materials Chemistry, Angstrom Laboratory, Uppsala University, Box 538, SE-751 21, Uppsala, Sweden

    Mats Boman

Authors
  1. Abhilash Sugunan
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  2. Hemant C. Warad
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  3. Mats Boman
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  4. Joydeep Dutta
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Sugunan, A., Warad, H.C., Boman, M. et al. Zinc oxide nanowires in chemical bath on seeded substrates: Role of hexamine. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 39, 49–56 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-006-6969-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-006-6969-y

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