• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2008.06a
• /
• pp.429-429
• /
• 2008

The structural stability and the elastic modulus of hexagonal ZnO nanowires and nanotubes are investigated using atomistic simulations based on the shell model. The ZnO nanowire with (10-10) facets is energetically more stable than that with (11-20). Our calculations indicate that the structural change of ZnO nanowires with (10-10) facets is sensitive to the diameter. With decreasing the diameter of ZnO nanowires, the unit-cell length is increased while the bond-length is reduced due to the change of surface atoms. Unlike the conventional layered nanotubes, the energetic stability of single crystalline ZnO nanotubes is related to the wall thickness. The potential energy of ZnO nanotubes with fixed outer and inner diameters decreases with increasing wall thickness while the nanotubes with same wall thickness are independent of the outer and inner diameters. The transformation of single crystalline ZnO nanotubes with double layer from wurtzite phase to graphitic suggests the possibility of wall-typed ZnO nanotubes. The size-dependent Young's modulus for ZnO nanowires and nanotubes is also calculated. The diameter and the wall thickness play a significant role in the Young's modulus of single crystalline ZnO nanowires and nanotubes, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2003.07a
• /
• pp.37-40
• /
• 2003

Amorphous $Al_2O_3$ nanotubes have been fabricated by utilizing the ZnO nanowires as template with wet etching method. ZnO nanowires synthesized by thermal evaporation are conformally coated with $Al_2O_3$ by atomic-layer deposition(ALD) method. The $Al_2O_3$-coated ZnO nanowires are of core-shell structure; ZnO core nanowires and $Al_2O_3$ shells. When the $ZnO/Al_2O_3$ core-shell structure is dipped in $H_3PO_4$ solution at $25^{\circ}C$ for a 6 min, the core ZnO materials are completely etched, and only $Al_2O_3$ nanotubes are remained. This nanotube fabrication is technically easier than others, and simply approachable. Transmission electron microscopy shows that the $Al_2O_3$ nanotubes have various thicknesses that can be controlled.

• Advances in nano research
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.43-58
• /
• 2013

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a unique semiconductor material that exhibits numerous useful properties for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) and other applications. Various thin-film growth techniques have been used to produce nanowires, nanorods, nanotubes, nanotips, nanosheets, nanobelts and terapods of ZnO. These unique nanostructures unambiguously demonstrate that ZnO probably has the richest family of nanostructures among all materials, both in structures and in properties. The nanostructures could have novel applications in solar cells, optoelectronics, sensors, transducers and biomedical sciences. This article reviews the various nanostructures of ZnO grown by various techniques and their application in DSSCs. The application of ZnO nanowires, nanorods in DSSCs became outstanding, providing a direct pathway to the anode for photo-generated electrons thereby suppressing carrier recombination. This is a novel characteristic which increases the efficiency of ZnO based dye-sensitized solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2007.06a
• /
• pp.146-147
• /
• 2007

A universal four-point contact measurement method, has an advantage of non-existence of contact resistance, is demonstrated by the experiments with carbon nanotubes and ZnO nanowire. Ti/Au and Pt are tried to compare the influence of contact resistance between two different metals. These metals are selected to make Ohmic contact and Schottky contact originated from their different work functions. For precise experiments, Ti/Au and Pt are separately evaporated to form double 'four-point contact electrodes' on CNTs or ZnO, and the voltage-current characteristics are measured. This method can be applied to universal resistivity measurement for nanotubes and nanowires.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2005.11a
• /
• pp.121-121
• /
• 2005

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.20 no.11
• /
• pp.623-627
• /
• 2010

Semiconducting metal oxides have been frequently used as gas sensing materials. While zinc oxide is a popular material for such applications, structures such as nanowires, nanorods and nanotubes, due to their large surface area, are natural candidates for use as gas sensors of higher sensitivity. The compound ZnO has been studied, due to its chemical and thermal stability, for use as an n-type semiconducting gas sensor. ZnO has a large exciton binding energy and a large bandgap energy at room temperature. Also, ZnO is sensitive to toxic and combustible gases. The NO gas properties of zinc oxide-single wall carbon nanotube (ZnO-SWCNT) composites were investigated. Fabrication includes the deposition of porous SWCNTs on thermally oxidized $SiO_2$ substrates followed by sputter deposition of Zn and thermal oxidation at $400^{\circ}C$ in oxygen. The Zn films were controlled to 50 nm thicknesses. The effects of microstructure and gas sensing properties were studied for process optimization through comparison of ZnO-SWCNT composites with ZnO film. The basic sensor response behavior to 10 ppm NO gas were checked at different operation temperatures in the range of $150-300^{\circ}C$. The highest sensor responses were observed at $300^{\circ}C$ in ZnO film and $250^{\circ}C$ in ZnO-SWCNT composites. The ZnO-SWCNT composite sensor showed a sensor response (~1300%) five times higher than that of pure ZnO thin film sensors at an operation temperature of $250^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2011.10a
• /
• pp.3.2-3.2
• /
• 2011

Nanofibers, one of various one-dimensional nanomaterials such as nanorods, nanowires and nanotubes have been successfully synthesized by many groups in recent years and their applications to chemical sensors, catalytic filters and biomedicine, etc. are extensively tested. In particular, there is a possibility that chemical sensors based on oxide nanofibers can overcome the shortcomings of chemical sensors based on single nanowires. In order to prepare oxide nanofibers, the electrospinning method is most widely used. In this work, we synthesized various oxide nanofibers including ZnO, SnO2 and CuO by employing an electrospinning method and various shapes of nanofibers including core-shell nanofibers and hollow nanofibers as well. The response properties of the various nanofibers to oxidizing and reducing gaseous species have been investigated systematically. The normal oxide nanofibers showed high sensitivity and quite fast response time to many gaseous species. Furthermore, derivatives of normal nanofibers including hollow nanofibers, core-shell nanofibers and heterostructured nanofibers display much superior sensing properties. These results hold promise for the practical application of oxide nanofibers to chemical sensors. In addition, the sensing mechanisms operated in the nanofibers will be discussed in detail.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2009.06a
• /
• pp.433-433
• /
• 2009

ZnO-based materials have been extensively studied for optoelectronic applications due to their superiors physical properties such as wide direct bandgap (~3.37 eV), large exciton binding energy (~60 meV), high transparency in the visible region, and low cost. Especially, one-dimensional (1D) ZnO nanostructures have attracted considerable attention owing to quantum confinement effect and high crystalline quality. Additionally, various nanostructures of ZnO such as nanorods, nanowires, nanoflower, and nanotubes have stimulated the interests because of their semiconducting. and piezoelectric properties. Among them, vertically aligned ZnO nanorods can bring the improved performance in various promising photoelectric fields including piezo-nanogenerators, UV lasers, dye sensitized solar cells, and photo-catalysis. In this work, we studied the effect of the annealing temperature of homo seed layers on the formation of ZnO nanorods grown by hydrothermal method. The effect of annealing temperature of seed layer on the length and orientation of the nanorods was investigated scanning electron microscopy investigation. Transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction measurement were performed to understand the effect of annealing temperatures of seed layers on the formation of nanorods. Moreover, the optical properties of the seed layers and the nanorods were studied by room temperature photoluminescence.