Growth mechanism of ZnO nanorods

Growth Kinetics of ZnO Nanorods Capping-Dependent Mechanism and Other Interesting Features... 

An Au-catalysed chemical vapour transport and condensation (CVTC) process was used to produce ZnO nanorods and nanowires on Si02 and Si substrates [58], ZnO nanorods with a wide band gap (3.37eV) are regarded as promising candidates for the fabrication of nanoelectronic devices. In this work, EDX spectra of the tip and the body of ZnO nanorods were captured which indicates that Au-Zn alloyed droplets were present at the tips of the fabricated nanorods pointing to a nanorod growth via a vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism. 

Hejazi SR, Hosseini HR, Sasani Ghamsari M. The role of reactants and droplet interfaces on nucleation and growth of ZnO nanorods synthesized by vapor—liquid—solid (VLS) mechanism. J Alloys Compd 2008 455 353-7. 

Strong exciton-related emission with a weak defect peak, which shows that the nanorods have good optical properties with low atomic defect. In addition, the growth mechanism of the ZnO nanorods has also been discussed. 

The remarkable goodness of fits (x2 = 0.95 and R2 = 0.989) over the entire range of experimental data by the mixed diffusion-reaction control model is shown by a thick solid curve in Figure 9b. Thus, the growth of the PVP-capped ZnO nanorods deviates sufficiently from the diffusion-limited Ostwald ripening model and follows a mechanism involving both diffusion-control and surface reaction control. 

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