Sulfur-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires grown on gold-coated silicon substrates inside a horizontal tube furnace exhibit remarkably strong visible wavelength emission with a quantum efficiency of 30%, an integrated intensity 1600 times stronger than band edge ultraviolet emission, and a spectral distribution that closely matches the dark-adapted human eye response. By comparatively studying sul...

Ultrathin phosphor (P)-doped ZnO nanosheets with branched nanowires were controllably synthesized, and the effects of oxygen and phosphor doping on the structural and optical properties were systematically studied. The grown ZnO nanosheet exhibits an ultrathin nanoribbon backbone with one-side-aligned nanoteeth. For the growth of ultrathin ZnO nanosheets, both oxygen flow rate and P doping are ...

The photoresponse behavior of one-dimensional ZnO nanowires (NWs) and nanotubes (NTs) grown on ITO-coated glass substrates via a wet-chemical route was investigated. The photoluminescence spectra exhibited a decrease in the deep-level intensity, indicating that the oxygen defects and impurities are occupied by the presence of N ions in the ZnO NT matrix after a nitrogen plasma treatment. I-V te...

Pt and Pd nanotubes could be prepared rapidly with high yields and good uniformity through the reduction of metal precursors in the presence of ZnO nanowires as inexpensive sacrificial templates. The prepared nanotubes showed efficient electrocatalytic properties toward alcohol oxidation.

We observed giant enhancement of the Raman intensity from 4-Mpy molecules adsorbed on semiconducting one-dimensional ZnO nanostructures, nanowires and nanocones, without involving any noble metals. Interestingly, the enhancement is strongly dependent on the geometry of ZnO nanostructures and can mainly be explained by the cavity-like structural resonance of the electric field. Our results can b...

Transition-metal oxides constitute an important family of high-capacity anodes for Li-ion batteries. ZnO is a model material due to the high theoretical capacity and its representative reaction mechanism upon lithiation. We investigate the structural evolution, mechanical degradation, and stress-regulated electrochemical reactions of ZnO nanowires during the first lithiation through coordinated...

ZnO nanowires are normally exposed to an oxygen atmosphere to achieve high performance in UV photodetection. In this work we present results on a UV photodetector fabricated using a flexible ZnO nanowire sheet embedded in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a gas-permeable polymer, showing reproducible UV photoresponse and enhanced photoconduction. PDMS coating results in a reduced response speed comp...

Hierarchical ZnO nanostructures with a large yield were fabricated by a simple thermal evaporation method. For the first time, novel ZnO flowers were observed blooming at certain sites of a variety of spines, identified as Zn-terminated polar (0001) planes or tips. The spines for as-synthesized hierarchical structures can be nanowires, nanobelts, nanodendrites, nanobrushes, etc. This growth phe...

This paper describes a class of three component hybrid nanowires templated by DNA directed self-assembly. Through the modification of carbon nanotube (CNT) termini with synthetic DNA oligonucleotides, gold nanoparticles are delivered, via DNA hybridization, to CNT tips that then serve as growth sites for zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires. The structures we have generated using DNA templating represent...

We prepared urchin-like micron-sized ZnO cavities with high optical quality by oxidizing metallic Zn and proposed the mechanism that resulted in the growth of the urchin-like microstructures. The photoluminescence spectra of the ZnO microstructures had a predominant excitonic emission at room temperature. The lasing properties of the urchin-like ZnO microstructures were investigated systematica...