Facile synthesis of ZnO/CuO nanostructures on cellulose paper and their p–n junction properties

•ZnO/CuO nanostructures were fabricated on cellulose papers by a hydrothermal synthesis.•The solution containing CuO nanospindles was used for soaking on the paper substrate.•The ZnO and CuO nanostructures showed good crystal and optical properties.•The cellulose paper based p-n junction device with ZnO/CuO nanostructures exhibited a rectifying behavior.

A cellulose paper based p–n junction device was fabricated by synthesizing the ZnO/CuO nanostructures via a hydrothermal process. The CuO nanospindles (NSs) were decorated on the surface of cellulose paper substrate by a simple soaking process. Subsequently, ZnO nanorod arrays were grown on the surface of the CuO NSs decorated cellulose paper (i.e., CuO NSs/paper) by the hydrothermal process. The synthesized ZnO/CuO nanostructures on cellulose paper exhibited good crystal and optical properties and favorably formed the p–n heterojunction with a rectifying behavior.