Synthesis, Superhydrophobicity, Enhanced Photoluminescence and Gas Sensing Properties of ZnO Nanowires

The past decades have witnessed major worldwide interested in the fabrication of nanodevi‐ ces based on quasi one-dimensional (1D) semiconducting nanostructures (Xu and Wang, 2011; Long et al., 2011; Long et al., 2012). ZnO, an important II-VI group semiconductor with many excellent properties (Xu and Wang, 2011), has been suggested for a diverse range of applications, including optoelectronics (Ko et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2004), ultraviolet laser devices (Liu et al., 2011), gas sensors (Wang et al., 2011; Ra et al., 2008; Wang et al., 2006) and transparent electrodes (Kusinski et al., 2010; Goris et al., 2009), etc. 1D ZnO nanorods, nano‐ wires and nanofibers have been synthesized by a range of techniques, such as top-down ap‐ proaches by etching (Wu et al., 2004), and wet chemical methods (Vayssieres et al., 2001; Gong et al., 2009), metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) (Yang et al., 2004; Pfuller et al., 2011; Lee et al., 2004), physical vapor deposition (Huang et al., 2001; Jeong and Lee, 2010; Wang et al., 2005; Hsu et al., 2005), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) (Heo et al., 2002), pulsed laser deposition (Shen et al., 2010; Cao et al., 2007), sputtering (Chiou et al., 2003), flux (Kong and Li, 2003), electrospinning (Sen et al., 2011; Wu et al., 2008; Lin et al., 2007; Sui et al., 2005) methods, etc.