Selective growth of ZnO nanorods by patterning of sol-gel-derived thin film

An effective method of fabricating micro and sub micro patterned zinc oxide nanorods without a transient metal catalytic assistants via hydrothermal synthesis using micro molding technique was presented. Micro molding of sol-gel-derived precursor layer was clearly accomplised by conformal contact of elastomeric molds with various kinds of patterns. The selective growth of the nanorods over a large area of the pre-patterned seed layer was observed with a pattern feasibility of 250 nm. The orientation of the nanorods was normal to the seed layer while characteristic sizes of the rod didn't show any dependence on the diameter of the seed particles. Presented synthetic process can provide simpler way of fabricating an array of semiconductor one-dimensional nanostructures.