Growth and characterization of chemical-vapor-deposited zinc oxide nanorods

ZnO nanorods were grown on Si substrates by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The ZnO nanorods were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray diffraction. It was found that highly oriented ZnO single-crystalline nanorods were formed only on the substrate coated with a gold film. Without the gold, ZnO was deposited as a continuous film. No Au was observed on top of the ZnO nanorods, implying that the Au plays no role as catalytic metal in vapor–liquid–solid mechanism for formation of ZnO nanorods. In CVD, oriented ZnO nanorods along the c-axis were grown as a result of 〈111〉 textured Au. High-resolution TEM shows that the gold layer and ZnO are in orientation relationship of Au {111} planes//ZnO (0002) basal planes.