Preparation and characterization of ZnO nanorod arrays produced using wet methods

Using a low temperature hydrothermal method, zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod arrays were grown from seed layers coated on silicon substrates. The grown morphologies of the nanorod arrays heavily depend on the seed layer preparation methods. The grown nanorod arrays are of high density and good crystallinity with preferred orientation for the nanorod arrays growing from uniformly distributed nucleation sites which are prepared on the seed layers by using the solvent ethanol. Using a conductive atomic force microscope, the dependence of the output current generated from the piezoelectric effect of bending a single nanorod was characterized. The output current increases with increasing the free bending lengths and applied force due to the increase in the deformation of the ZnO nanorods, and the maximum output current is 2.6 nA. The dependence of the bending-induced output current on the growth parameters, the nanorod array morphology and inclined orientation feature is discussed.