Synthesis and characterization of ZnO nanorods by hydrothermal method

Hydrogen generation through solar-driven photoelectrolysis of water is a promising technology for clean power supply. Zinc oxide (ZnO) is often applied to a photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells for water splitting, because ZnO has a favorable band edge that straddles the redox potential of photoelectrolysis in water. In addition, formation of ZnO nanostructure is attracting much attention, since the efficiency of PEC cell largely depends on a surface area of contacts. Here we report a modified hydrothermal method to prepare ZnOnanorods, whose structures can be controlled by changing preparation parameters. Our method includes seeding process by simple dip-coating technique, followed by post annealing process and hydrothermal growth process of ZnO nanostructures. The morphology of the grown ZnO depended on the concentration of the solvent used to form the seed layer formation, post-annealing temperature, and growth temperature. At the seed layer solvent concentration of 0.2 M, the ZnOnanorods were needle-like. At 0.9 M, hexagonal ZnOnanorods were obtained. We have successfully prepared hexagonalZnOnanorods by varying seed layer concentration at 0.9M, annealed at 150 °C for 2 h and grown at 120 °C for 1 h.