Fabrication of ZnO and CuO Nanostructures on Cellulose Papers

The use of cellulose papers has recently attracted much attention in various device applications owing to their natural advantageous properties of earth's abundance, bio-friendly, large-scale production, and flexibility. Conventional metal oxides with novel structures of nanorods, nanospindles, nanowires and nanobelts are being developed for emerging electronic and chemical sensing applications. In this work, both ZnO (n-type) nanorod arrays (NRAs) and CuO (p-type) nanospindles (NSs) were synthesized on cellulose papers and the p-n junction property was investigated using the electrode of indium tin oxide coated polyethylene terephthalate film. To synthesize ZnO and CuO nanostructures on cellulose paper, a simple and facile hydrothermal method was utilized. First, the CuO NSs were synthesized on cellulose paper by a simple soaking process, yielding the well adhered CuO NSs on cellulose paper. After that, the ZnO NRAs were grown on CuO NSs/cellulose paper via a facile hydrothermal route. The as-grown ZnO/CuO NSs on cellulose paper exhibited good crystalline and optical properties. The fabricated p-n junction device showed the I-V characteristics with a rectifying behaviour.