Selective growth of hierarchical ZnO nanorod arrays on the graphene nanosheets

We report directly selective-area grown (SAG) high-quality hierarchical ZnO nanorod arrays on the graphene nanosheets without invoking damage or introducing a catalyst. The SAG behavior in the non-catalytic growth mechanism is attributed to dangling bonds on the boundary edges of graphene nanosheets, which serve as the preferential adsorption and nucleation sites of ZnO nanorod. High densities of hierarchical ZnO nanorods show single-crystalline hexagonal wurtzite structure and are vertically well-aligned on the graphene nanosheets, with the diameter and the density strongly dependent on the growth temperature. Furthermore, no carbon impurity can be seen in the tips of the ZnO nanorods and also no carbon-related defect peak in the 10 K PL spectrum of ZnO nanorods. Our approach using a graphene-nanosheet substrate provides an efficient route for the growth of high-quality ZnO with a one-dimensional (1D) hierarchical nanostructure, which is highly desirable for fabricating 1D ZnO hybrid optoelectronic devices, particularly for a fast-response UV photodetector and highly-sensitive gas sensor.