Synthesis of one-dimensional ZnO nanoneedles using thermal oxidation process in the air and its application as filed emitters

In the present work, a novel route for synthesizing one-dimensional ZnO nanoneedles were introduced; that is, a pure Zinc nanocrystalline layer was firstly plated by using a periodic reverse pulse plating process, and then the ZnO nanoneedles grew upon the layer through thermal oxidation process in the air. The results showed that the oxidation temperature played a key role for growth, morphology and density of ZnO nanoneedles, which leads to the difference of their filed emission properties due to the various field enhancement factors β. A novel self-catalyzed diffusion model was proposed for interpreting the nanoneedles growth mechanism.