Large-scale fabrication of high-purity and uniform Zn nanowires by thermal evaporation

Large-scale fabrication of high-purity and uniform Zn nanowires was obtained via thermal evaporation. The resulting Zn nanowires were characterized and confirmed by means of an x-ray diffractometer, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscope. An analysis of the characterization indicates that the high yield uniform zinc nanowires have serpentine geometries, with lengths up to several micrometres and diameters about 50 nm. The selected area electron diffraction pattern and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy image demonstrate perfect crystallinity with the growth direction of [0001]. Owing to the low content of oxygen in the as-prepared products, their photoluminescence spectrum was measured; it exhibits a significant blue shift. Up to now, such optical properties from zinc nanowires have been little reported.