Grafting Methyl Groups on the Si(111) Surface as a Buffer Layer for van der Waals Epitaxial Growth of ZnO Nanorods in Chemical Bath Deposition

The absence of an epitaxial relation of material growth with silicon substrates usually results from the formation of native oxide on the substrate surface, especially in the lengthy solution process at elevated temperature. An effective method to impede surface oxidation and the consequent inheritance of the lattice structure of the substrate are beneficial for the epitaxial growth. In this study, we use the two-step halogenation/methylation process to create a methylated Si(111) surface for the growth of ZnO nanorods in a chemical bath deposition (CBD) process. The grafted methyl groups effectively passivate the Si(111) surface, and the deposited ZnO nanorods exhibit an epitaxial relation with the silicon substrateZnO[0001]//Si[111]; ZnO{11̅00}//Si{22̅0}. Because no chemical bonding is formed between the ZnO nanorods and the Si(111) substrate, this solution process exhibits the characteristics of the van der Waals epitaxial (vdWE) growth. The approach developed in this study paves a way for vdWE growth of nanostructures on Si substrates by the CBD process.