Host: The Ceramic Society of Japan
Semi-circular shaped ZnO nanowhiskers were self assembled on a pretreated F-doped SnO2 coated glass (FTO) substrate using an aqueous solution at 88 C. The pretreated substrates were prepared from the spin coating and subsequently dehydration and/or thermal decomposition of zinc nitrate hexahydrate. A 200-ml aqueous solution of zinc nitrate hexahydrate, hexamethylenetetramine (HMT) and polyethylenimine (PEI) was used for fabricating ZnO nanowhiskers. The pre-existing zinc nitrate hexahydrate-derived seeds layer promoted heterogeneous nucleation and growth of ZnO preferentially orientated along the c-axis direction, resulting in the formation of the unique semi-circular shaped ZnO nanowhiskers assembles.
