Formation of star nanowires of sulfur-doped zinc oxide: Ab initio calculations

ZnO nanowires are hexagonally shaped under normal growth conditions, but are transformed from a hexagon to hexagram ones when sulfur dopants are added into the growth solution. The formation mechanism of the hexagram-shaped ZnO nanowires is further studied by the ab initio calculations in this paper. The present calculations support the fact that the hexagonally shaped ZnO nanowires are transformed to hexagram shaped ones when the O atoms on the side surfaces of the nanowires are replaced by S atoms in certain quantities. It indicates that the ratio of sulfur content plays an important role in the hexagram formation. The results of the electronic charge densities indicate that the charge transfer makes the S-Zn bond longer than that of O-Zn. The new charge distribution on the side planes due to the S atoms replacement leads to the formation of the hexagram-shaped nanowires. The calculation on the electronic properties shows that a sulfur-doped hexagram ZnO nanowire is an indirect band gap semiconductor with a narrow gap. When dopant is increased, the gap will decrease.