By using a simply and low-temperature hydrothermal method, ZnO nanorod array films with narrow size distribution and high orientation consistence were successfully prepared on ITO substrates, which were pre-treated with ZnO colloid solution. The obtained ZnO nanostructure was characterized by XRD and SEM. The results of characterization indicate that the nanorods are high-quality single crystals growing along (001) direction with a high consistent orientation perpendicular to the substrate. SEM images show that the nanorods have a very narrow size distribution of 20—50 nm with the average diameter about 40 nm. The room temperature photoluminescence of the as-prepared ZnO films exhibits a strong UV emission at about 390 nm and a weak emission at about 460 nm. The ease of fabricating high-quality ZnO nanorod arrays in large scales will greatly promote the fundamental research and practical applications of the ordered one-dimention ZnO structure in various fields of nanoscale science and technology.
Well oriented ZnO nanorod array films were prepared by a low cost and low temperature hydrothermal approach. The wettability of the films were studied. The films treated with octadecanethiol(ODT) possess super hydrophobic properties. The static contact angle for water of the ODT modified films is 155.3°±2.3°, and the advancing and receding angles are 156.5°±1.9° and 150.3°±2.8°, respectively. It is believed that the super hydrophobic property of the ZnO nanorod array films is mainly caused by the nanostructures of the films and the modification of ODT adsorption layer on ZnO surfaces.
A novel unsymmetrical cyanine dye(noted as CD) was applied to dye sensitized nanoporous TiO 2 photoelectrochemical cells. The incident photon to electron conversion efficiency up to 84 34% was achieved, which is notably high for cells employing pure organic dyes. To circumvent the sealing difficulties present in wet type cells, the solid state cell was fabricated using poly(ethyleneoxide)(PEO) based gel network polymer electrolyte as charge transfer material between two electrodes. The resulting solid state cell had an energy conversion efficiency of 0 86%, with open circuit voltage of 0 53 V and short circuit current density of 0 96 mA/cm 2 under 38 1 mW/cm 2 white light illumination. The results show that the gel network polymer electrolyte is appropriate for assembling solid state photoelectrochemical cells.
