Preparation of ZnO nanorods through wet chemical method

Abstract The different morphologies of nanorods have been obtained via a simple wet chemical method in the present of polyethylene glycol (PEG, Mw = 4000) by using zinc nitrate hexahydrate (Zn(NO3)2·6H2O) and ammonium hydroxide (NH3·H2O) as the starting materials. Samples were characterized by XRD, EDS, TEM, SEM, ED and PL. XRD results prove the formation of ZnO with wurtzite structure. The ED and HRTEM reveal that single ZnO nanorod is single crystal and preferentially grows up along the [001] direction. The PL spectra showed that the ZnO nanorods have blue emission at 466 nm and green–yellow emission at 542 nm. The influence of reaction temperature, pH in system and evaporation of ammonia on the morphology has been investigated. A possible growth mechanism of ZnO with various morphologies is discussed.