New method of producing well-aligned ZnO nanorods on a Si-SiO2 substrate

Well-aligned ZnO nanorods arrays were fabricated by sintering powder Zn underneath a Si–SiO2 substrate. In this fabrication, ZnO was produced by the displacement reactions between Zn and SiO vapors. We found that these ZnO nanorods grew toward the [0001] direction. The diameter and the alignment of these nanorods strongly depended on the sintering temperature. When the temperature was increased from 740 to 800 °C, the diameter of the rods was increased from 30–70 nm to 300–700 nm, and their alignment was also improved. A model is proposed to describe the formation of these nanorods.