Fabrication of ZnO nanorods and assessment of changes in optical and gas sensing properties by increasing their lengths

We report a low-temperature process to synthesize highly oriented arrays of ZnO nanorods, based on the epitaxial growth of the ZnO seed layer at a low temperature of 70 °C. The ZnO seed layer was deposited by sol–gel process under mild conditions on the glass substrates. The morphologies and crystal structures of the film and nanorods were characterized by x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. ZnO nanorods were grown on ZnO seed layers by hydrothermal method. The effect of growth period on the morphology and optical characteristics (e.g. optical transmission and band-gap energy), hydrophilicity and gas sensing properties of the grown ZnO seed layer (film) and nanorods were investigated. The long nanorods on the seed layer were observed. The increase in the length of the nanorods resulted in a significant reduction in the optical band-gap energy of the nanorods, which was attributed to the formation of further defects in the nanorods during their fast growth. The surface of the ZnO nanorods grown for 6 h was relatively hydrophilic (with a water contact angle of 18°). The fabricated sensors were used to gauge different concentrations of ethanol vapor in the air at different temperatures and evaluated the surface resistance of the sensors as a function of operating temperature and ethanol concentrations. The results showed that the sensitivity of the nanorods changed from 1.3 to 6 (at 300 °C) by increasing the growth period.