Thermo-electrochemical selective growth of ZnO nanorods on any noble metal electrodes

Selective growth of ZnO nanorods has been successfully performed on the patterned Au/Ti metal electrode regions on a glass substrate by using a seeded thermo-electrochemical method in an acidic growth solution. The selective growth mechanism of the thermo-electrochemical method was proposed by using a series of chemical reactions for the first time. The thermo-electrochemical selective ZnO growth was performed on the cathode electrode at a temperature below 90 °C. A ZnO seed layer was precoated and selectively etched away from the non-metal regions in order to create the patterned selective nucleation sites on which the precursors are transferred and crystallized into ZnO nanorods. Both the dimensions and the placements of the ZnO nanorods have been simultaneously controlled. Energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry showed that the selectively grown ZnO nanorods consist of only Zn and O, indicating that the selectively grown ZnO nanorods are pure and contamination free. XRD and electron diffraction patterns revealed that the obtained ZnO nanorods have a wurtzite single-crystal structure.