Morphology and orientation controlling of ZnO nanofibers via chemical bath deposition

• Published in: Materials chemistry and physics 2023-09, Vol.305, p.128028, Article 128028
• Main Authors: Zhu, Jinze, Feng, Yiming, Dai, Bushi, Qi, Yang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chemical bath deposition; Preferred orientation; Steric hindrance effect; ZnO nanofiber
• ISSN: 0254-0584
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matchemphys.2023.128028

Growth of high-quality ZnO nanomaterials along specific orientations has still been a hot issue nowadays. Here, ZnO nanofibers with various orientations have been demonstrated. Electrospinning ZnO fibers have been acted as seed templates for fabricating ZnO crystals with different orientations depended on the increased volume ratio of isopropanol (IPA). ZnO nanofibers have been characterized and the results have shown that ZnO crystals experience the growth transition from polar to nonpolar orientation owing to the enhanced steric hindrance originated from the increased IPA volume fraction in chemical bath deposition (CBD) solutions. In this work, an effective synthesized approach has been applied for growing ZnO nanostructures with specific orientations of the crystals. •Formulation of precursors by sol-gel and preparation of ZnO nanofibers by electrostatic spinning.•Changing the volume fraction of IPA in aqueous IPA solution for morphology controlling of ZnO nanofiber surface.•Exploring the growth mechanism of ZnO nanofibers by solution polarity and steric hindrance effect.•Increasing the specific surface area of ZnO through morphology controlling to improve its properties.