Growth of high transmittance vertical aligned ZnO nanorod arrays with polyvinyl alcohol by hydrothermal method

Well-aligned ZnO nanorod arrays were synthesized on SnO2:F (FTO) glass substrates by hydrothermal method with the addition of polyvinyl alcohol. Morphology and optical properties of the well-aligned ZnO nanorod arrays were studied. The transmittance of the as grown samples was dramatically increased by the addition of polyvinyl alcohol. PVA was regarded to play an important role in improving the optical transmittance and its role in hydrothermal growth process is also discussed in this work. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.