Double template electrosynthesis of ZnO nanodot array

This communication describes the preparation of highly-ordered nanodot arrays of ZnO, a technologically important material, by the double template approach developed by Bartlett and co-workers. Colloidal polystyrene spheres were used as the primary template, and electrodeposited polypyrrole was used as the secondary template in this study. The ZnO nanodot arrays were prepared on a polycrystalline Au substrate by electrodeposition using the pyrrole secondary template after making it insulating by potentiodynamically deactivating it. The ZnO nanodot array was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray analyses, and laser Raman spectroscopy.