Influence of nanocrystalline diamond powder on the growth and photoluminescence of open-ended ZnO nanorods

This paper reports the influence of introducing nanocrystalline diamond powder on the growth and photoluminescence of ZnO nanorods fabricated by hydrothermal technique. The majority of ZnO nanorods show an open-ended feature due to the addition of nano-diamond powder in the reaction solution. It is speculated that the diamond nanocrystallines dropped on the top of the growing ZnO nanorods would suppress the further growth at the localized positions to form the open-ended nanorods. The photoluminescence spectra of the ZnO products show the band-edge-related UV emission of ZnO nanorods at ~ 380 nm, in addition to a broad visible band centered at about 650 nm, which may originate from the emissions related to defects in the open-ended ZnO nanorods. The open-ended ZnO nanorods and/or combined with diamond nanocrystallines would be favorable for potential applications including UV sensors, electron field emitter, and various photoelectric nanodevices. ► Open-ended ZnO nanorods are hydrothermally fabricated by introducing diamond nano-powder in the solution. ► The diamond powders introduced influence the growth features and photoluminescence property of ZnO nanorods. ► The novel ZnO and ZnO/diamond multi-nanostructures are developed for further practical applications.