Abstract
In this work, a low temperature (~178oC) ultraviolet (UV, 1000W) decomposition process was employed to fabricate ZnO nanowires on a flexible PET substrate in ambient air. The zinc acetylacetonate hydrate acted as a single precursor. HRTEM images revealed that the nanowires consisted of single crystalline ZnO nanoparticles. The nanoparticle size as determined by the Debye-Scherrer equation was ~6-9nm. The nanowires had a diameter of ~50-100 nm and a length of up to several hundred or thousand microns. An X-ray diffraction pattern revealed that the nanowires exhibit a single phase of crystalline structures and belong to hexagonal (wurtzite) ZnO with lattice constants a = 0.325 nm and c = 0.52 nm. The growth mechanism of the the ZnO nanoparticles is oriented to a self-assembling attachment process. This work reveals that there is a high contrast ratio of photocurrent to dark.