Abstract
Zinc oxide (ZnO)/carbon-nanotubular-structures (CNTS) nanohybrids were grown using a three-step laser process. First, an ultraviolet (UV) laser (KrF) was used to deposit Co/Ni catalyst nanoparticles (NP) directly onto SiO2/Si substrates. Second, a random network of CNTS was grown onto these Co/Ni-catalyzed substrates by using the UV-laser ablation method. Finally, ZnO nanostructures were grown onto the CNTS template by means of the CO2 laser-induced chemical liquid deposition technique. While the laterally grown CNTS mainly consist of nanotube bundles featuring a high aspect ratio (diameter of ~20 nm and length of up to several microns), the ZnO nanostructures were found to consist of various morphologies including nanorods, polypods, and nanoparticles with a size as small as 2 nm. The ZnO/CNTS nanohybrids were found to exhibit a polychromatic photoluminescent (PL) emission, at room temperature, comprising a narrow near-UV band centered around 390 nm, a broad visible to near infrared band (500–900 nm), and a relatively weak emission band centered around 1000 nm. These PL results are compared to those of individual components (CNTS and ZnO) and discussed in terms of carbon defect density and possible charge transfer between the ZnO nanocrystals and the carbon nanotubes.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
C.N.R. Rao, B.C. Satishkumar, A. Govindaraj, and M. Nath: Nanotubes. Chem. Phys. Chem. 2, 78 (2001).
S. Fullam, D. Cottel, H. Rensmo, and D. Fitzmaurice: Carbon nanotube templated self-assembly and thermal processing of gold nanowires. Adv. Mater. 12, 1430 (2000).
M. Endo, Y.A. Kim, M. Ezaka, K. Osada, T. Yanagisawa, T. Hayashi, M. Terrones, and M.S. Dresselhaus: Selective and efficient impregnation of metal nanoparticles on cup-stacked-type carbon nanofibers. Nano Lett. 3, 723 (2003).
W.Q. Han and A. Zettl: Coating single-walled carbon nanotubes with tin oxide. Nano Lett. 3, 681 (2003).
K. Byrappa, A.S. Dayananda, C.P. Sajan, B. Basavalingu, M.B. Shayan, K. Soga, and M. Yoshimura: Hydrothermal preparation of ZnO/CNT and TiO2/CNT composites and their photocatalytic applications. J. Mater. Sci. 43, 2348 (2008).
M. Baibarac, I. Baltog, S. Lefrant, J.Y. Mevellec, and M. Husanua: Vibrational and photoluminescence properties of composites based on zinc oxide and single-walled carbon nanotubes. Physica E 40, 2556 (2008).
D. Banerjee, S.H. Jo, and Z.F. Ren: Enhanced field emission of ZnO nanowires. Adv. Mater. 16, 2028 (2004).
F. Vietmeyer, B. Seger, and P.V. Kamat: Anchoring ZnO particles on functionalized single wall carbon nanotubes. Excited state interactions and charge collection. Adv. Mater. 19, 2935 (2007).
S. Bae, H. Seo, H. Choi, and J. Park: Heterostructures of ZnO nanorods with various one-dimensional nanostructures. J. Phys. Chem. B 108, 12318 (2004).
R.H. Baughman, A.A. Zakhidov, and _deW.A. Heer: Carbon nanotubesThe route toward applications. Science 297, 787 (2002).
P.M. Ajayan and O.Z. Zhou: Carbon nanotubes. Top. Appl. Phys. 80, 391 (2001).
J. Liu, X. Li, and L. Dai: Water-assisted growth of aligned carbon nanotube-ZnO heterojunction arrays. Adv. Mater. 18, 1740 (2006).
M.A. El Khakani and J-H Yi: The nanostructure and electrical properties of SWNT bundle networks grown by an all-laser growth process for nanoelectronic device applications. Nanotechnology 15, S534 (2004).
M.A. KhakaniEl, J.H. Yi, and B. Assa: Lateral growth of single wall carbon nanotubes on various substrates by means of an alllaser synthesis approach. Diamond Relat. Mater. 15, 1064 (2006).
C. Fauteux, M.A. KhakaniEl, J. Pegna, and D. Therriault: Influence of solution parameters for the fast growth of ZnO nanostructures by laser-induced chemical liquid deposition. Appl. Phys. A 94, 819 (2008).
N. Braidy, M.A. KhakaniEl, and G.A. Botton: Carbon nanotubular structures synthesis by means of ultraviolet laser ablation. J. Mater. Res. 17, 2189 (2002).
X. Wang, B. Xia, X. Zhu, J. Chen, S. Qiu, and J. Li: Controlled modification of multiwalled carbon nanotubes with ZnO nanostructures. J. Solid State Chem. 181, 822 (2008).
A. Wei, X.W. Sun, C.X. Xu, Z.L. Dong, Y. Yang, S.T. Tan, and W. Huang: Growth mechanism of tubular ZnO formed in aqueous solution. Nanotechnology 17, 1740 (2006).
S. Bandow, S. Asaka, Y. Saito, A.M. Rao, L. Grigorian, E. Richter, and P.C. Eklund: Effect of the growth temperature on the diameter distribution and chirality of single-wall carbon nanotubes. Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 3779 (1998).
W. Li, H. Zhang, C. Wang, Y. Zhang, L. Xu, K. Zhu, and S. Xie: Raman characterization of aligned carbon nanotubes produced by thermal decomposition of hydrocarbon vapor. Appl. Phys. Lett. 70, 2684 (1997).
J.F. Scott: UV resonant Raman scattering in ZnO. Phys. Rev. B 2, 1209 (1970).
Y. Huang, M. Liu, Z. Li, Y. Zeng, and S. Liu: Raman spectroscopy study of ZnO-based ceramic films fabricated by novel sol-gel process. Mater. Sci. Eng., B 97, 111 (2003).
J.W. Jang, C.E. Lee, S.C. Lyu, T.J. Lee, and C.J. Lee: Structural study of nitrogen-doping effects in bamboo-shaped multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Appl. Phys. Lett. 84, 2877 (2004).
M. Futsuhara, K. Yoshioka, and O. Takai: Structural, electrical and optical properties of zinc nitride thin films prepared by reactive rf magnetron sputtering. Thin Solid Films 322, 274 (1998).
L. Fu, Z. Liu, Y. Liu, B. Han, P. Hu, L. Cao, and D. Zhu: Beaded cobalt oxide nanoparticles along carbon nanotubes: Towards more highly integrated electronic devices. Adv. Mater. 17, 217 (2005).
Y. Shan and L. Gao: Synthesis and characterization of phase controllable ZrO2carbon nanotube nanocomposites. Nanotechnology 16, 625 (2005).
N.I. Kovtyukhova, T.E. Mallouk, L. Pan, and E.C. Dickey: Individual single-walled nanotubes and hydrogels made by oxidative exfoliation of carbon nanotube ropes. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 125, 9761 (2003).
M. Liu, Y. Yang, T. Zhu, and Z. Liu: Chemical modification of single-walled carbon nanotubes with peroxytrifluoroacetic acid. Carbon 43, 1470 (2005).
K. Matsuda, Y. Kanemitsu, K. Irie, T. Saiki, and T. Someya: Photoluminescence intermittency in an individual single-walled carbon nanotube at room temperature. Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 123116 (2005).
J. Guo, C. Yang, Z.M. Li, M. Bai, H.J. Liu, G.D. Li, E.G. Wang, C.T. Chan, Z.K. Tang, W.K. Ge, and X. Xiao: Efficient visible photoluminescence from carbon nanotubes in zeolite templates. Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 017402 (2004).
M.E. Brennan, J.N. Coleman, A. Drury, B. Lahr, T. Kobayashi and W.J. Blau: Nonlinear photoluminescence from van Hove singularities in multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Opt. Lett. 28(4), 266 (2003).
A.J. Henley, J.D. Carey, and S.R.P. Silva: Room temperature photoluminescence from nanostructured amorphous carbon. Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 6236 (2004).
Y. Lin, B. Zhou, R.B. Martin, K.B. Henbest, B.A. Harruff, J.E. Riggs, Z-X Guo, L.F. Allard, and Y-P Sun: Visible luminescence of carbon nanotubes and dependence on functionalization. J. Phys. Chem. B 109, 14779 (2005).
R. Zhang, L. Fan, Y. Fang, and S. Yang: Electrochemical route to the preparation of highly dispersed composites of ZnO/carbon nanotubes with significantly enhanced electrochemiluminescence from ZnO. J. Mater. Chem. 18, 4964 (2008).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Aïssa, B., Fauteux, C., El Khakani, M.A. et al. Structural and photoluminescence properties of laser processed ZnO/carbon nanotube nanohybrids. Journal of Materials Research 24, 3313–3320 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2009.0421
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2009.0421