Formation and characterization of zinc oxide nanowires grown on hexagonal-prism microstructures

In this paper, zinc oxide (ZnO) micro- and nano-structures were synthesized through a chemical vapor deposition route. X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to study the samples’ phase, composition, purity, and structure. XRD analysis confirmed the formation of the wurtzite phase in all samples. SEM images revealed the formation of hexagonal-prism microstructures of ZnO. After we changed the conditions, nano-wires 40–50nm in diameter appeared on these hexagonal-prism microstructures. Further, we investigated the photoluminescence properties of these structures at room temperature. The modified structures showed UV emission and strong blue-green photoluminescence line due to near-band emission and oxygen vacancies respectively.