We present a holey titanium dioxide (TiO2) film combined with a periodically aligned ZnO nanorod layer (ZNL) for maximum light utilization in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Both the holey TiO2 film and the ZNL were simultaneously fabricated by imprint technique with a mold having vertically aligned ZnO nanorod (NR) array, which was transferred to the TiO2 film after imprinting. The orientat...

The talk will mainly concentrate on the results of optical and morphological properties of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures and on some recent work on organic polymer based photovoltaic devices. Low dimensional nanostructures of ZnO have potential to improve the efficiency and compactness of electronic and photonic devices including LEDs, optical waveguides and sensors. The growth mechanism and ...

The effects of zinc oxide nanorod on the barrier, sorption isotherm and antibacterial properties of tapioca starch/bovine gelatin Bionanocomposite films were investigated. The nanorod-rich ZnO (ZnO-N) was homogenized by sonication and incorporated into tapioca starch/bovine gelatin solutions at different concentrations (e.g. 0.5, 2, and 3.5% w/w dried solid). Incorporation of 3.5% of nanopartic...

This paper reports combined hydrophobicity and mechanical durability through the nanoscale engineering of surfaces in the form of nanorod-polymer composites. Specifically, the hydrophobicity derives from nanoscale features of mechanically hard ZnO nanorods and the mechanical durability derives from the composite structure of a hard ZnO nanorod core and soft polymer shell. Experimental character...

Aligned ZnO nanorod arrays films were grown on LiNbO3 substrates by aqueous growth, and subsequently rendered superhydrophobic with RF sputtered coated Teflon. The as-prepared surface exhibits superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle (CA) of 154.5. After 2 hours of UV irradiation on the surface, the surface wettability was approaching hydrophilic state; CA was measured to be 113. This stu...

A seeded heteroepitaxial growth of ZnO nanorods selectively on TiO(2) nanorod tips was achieved by restricting crystal growth on highly hydrophobic TiO(2) nanorod film surfaces. Intriguing light harvesting performance and efficient charge transport efficiency has been found, which suggest potential applications in photovoltaics and optoelectronics.

Ni-Fe alloy/ZnO nanorod composites were fabricated and the magnetoelectric effect was demonstrated. The ZnO and Ni-Fe alloy serve as the piezoelectric phase and the magnetostrictive phase in the nanocomposite, respectively. Since the nanorod structure possesses the inherent nature of a large surface-to-volume ratio, it greatly enhances the interplay between the piezoelectric and magnetostrictiv...

In this study, zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod arrays were synthesized using a simple hydrothermal reaction on ZnO seeds/n-silicon substrate. Several parameters were studied, including the heat-treatment temperature to produce ZnO seeds, zinc nitrate concentration, pH of hydrothermal reaction solution, and hydrothermal reaction time. The optimum heat-treatment temperature to produce uniform nanosized ...

An amperometric biosensor was constructed by using ZnO nanorod clusters as platforms for immobilizing tyrosinase on the nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) electrodes. The results showed that ZnO nanorod clusters provided an advantageous microenvironment due to their favorable isoelectric point (IEP) for tyrosinase loading; immobilized tyrosinase generally retained its activity. The tyrosinase/ZnO/NC...

Highly uniform and c-axis-aligned ZnO nanorod arrays were fabricated in predefined patterns by a low temperature homoepitaxial aqueous chemical method. The nucleation seed patterns were realized in polymer and in metal thin films, resulting in, all-ZnO and bottom-contacted structures, respectively. Both of them show excellent geometrical uniformity: the cross-sectional uniformity according to t...