Controlled growth of ZnO nanorods by polymer template and their photoluminescence properties

A large amount of one-dimensional ZnO nanorods with diameters in 15-50 nm aligned in radial cluster were successfully synthesized by polar polymer polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as soft-template. The growth of ZnO nanorods was controlled by changing annealing temperature. The evolution of the morphology and microstructure was investigated by scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope and X-ray diffraction. It is shown that ZnO nanorods tend to be uniform and the crystallization is gradually improved with the temperature increasing from 400A degrees to 700A degrees. The photoluminescence spectra of products show a strong ultra violet emission and relatively weak defect emissions. The sharp strong emission peak at 354 nm owing to the inter-band transition indicates the extraordinary photoluminescence property of ZnO nanorods.