Surface structure and field emission properties of cost effectively synthesized zinc oxide nanowire/multiwalled carbon nanotube heterojunction arrays

A cost-effective and efficient approach for the synthesis of single-crystalline zinc oxide nanowires on vertically aligned multiwalled carbon nanotube (CNT) array is presented. ZnO nanowires are grown on the base of individual CNT through the low-temperature wet-chemical batch deposition technique, while the size and interspacing of the nanowires can be controlled by precursor concentration, growth temperature and time duration. The scanning electron microscopy image showed that the ZnO nanostructures are successfully grown on the CNT's surface uniformly. The produced nanostructures are characterized by x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. Also, field emission characteristics of the fabricated double-stage ZnO nanowire/CNT array are investigated and compared with the emission behaviour of CNT and ZnO nanowire arrays. The ZnO nanowire/CNT heterojunction array resulted in a low turn-on field of 1.5 V µm−1 and a threshold field of 4.5 V µm−1, which were lower than both the vertical CNT and ZnO arrays. The field emission properties and stability of the fabricated nanostructures also demonstrated great potential for field emission applications.