Hydrothermal synthesis of brush-like ZnO NWAs@CC composites with enhanced photocatalytic and field emission performance

Abstract Flexible substrates are very advantageous for optimal performance of highly ordered nanoscale semiconductor nanowire arrays, which is beneficial for flexible device fabrication. Herein, the highly vertically alignment ZnO NWAs (Zinc oxide nanowires arrays) have been successfully fabricated on the high-conductivity flexible CC (Carbon cloth) substrates spin-coated with ZnO seed layers to form a brush-like ZnO NWAs@CC heterojunction composites. XPS spectra shows the C–O–Zn interface chemical bonds between the CC and ZnO seed layers, which not only reduces the contact resistance between ZnO NWAs and CC substrates, but also conducive to the transfer of efficient electrons. The brush-like ZnO NWAs@CC-18 composites were demonstrated to possess excellent photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation (degradation of 91.65% for 120 min for MB (Methyl blue) dyes) and field emission properties (the turn-on and threshold field of 0.32 V/μm and 1.02 V/μm, the field enhancement factor of 64438), suggesting a promising flexible cold candidate for photocatalytic decontamination and field emission (FE) devices.