Nanostructural ZnO fabricated by vapor-phase transport in air

Nanostructural zinc oxide has been successfully fabricated by heating the mixture of ZnO and graphite powders in air. The growth of these zinc oxide nanostructures with respect to the growing time and temperature has been studied. The morphologies and the crystal structures have been characterized by scanning electronic microscopy and the X-ray diffraction. The results indicated that ZnO nanostructure formed mainly along the crystal orientation [002] on silicon substrate at moderate temperatures. The crystallization was improved by prolonging growth time and the morphologies mainly depended on the distribution of the growth temperature. The growth process was attributed to vapor-liquid-solid mechanism.