Synthesis of Lotus-Leaf-Shaped and Four-Footed ZnO Nanostructure on a Large Scale

Lotus-leaf-shaped and four (or five)-footed ZnO nanostructures have been successfully synthesized on Si(111) substrates by thermal evaporation with radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. In this study, x-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), fourier transform infared spetrophotometry (FTIRS) and photoluminescence (PL) measurement were used to characterize the as-prepared samples. The results indicate that the formed samples have high-quality single-crystal hexagonal wurtzite ZnO nanostructures. Under 325 nm light emission at room temperature, the samples had a relatively weak near-UV emissive peak located at 386 nm and a broad and strong green luminous (GL) band located at 505 nm, which were attributed to ZnO near-band-edge excitation transition and deep-level or trap-state emission, respectively. In the end, the formation mechanism of the as-prepared samples was discussed.