Graphene-Assisted Controlled Growth of Highly Aligned ZnO Nanorods and Nanoribbons: Growth Mechanism and Photoluminescence Properties

We demonstrate graphene-assisted controlled fabrication of various ZnO 1D nanostructures on the SiO2/graphene substrate at a low temperature (540 degrees C) and elucidate the growth mechanism. Monolayer and a few layer graphene prepared by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and subsequently coated with a thin Au layer followed by rapid thermal annealing is shown to result in highly aligned wurtzite ZnO nanorods (NRs) with clear hexagonal facets. On the other hand, direct growth on C VD graphene without a Au catalyst layer resulted in a randomly. oriented growth of dense ZnO nanoribbons (NRBs). The role of in-plane defects and preferential clustering of Au atoms on the defect sites of graphene on the growth of highly aligned ZnO NRs/nanowires (NWs) on graphene was established from micro-Raman and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy analyses. Further, we demonstrate strong UV and visible photoluminescence (PL) from the as-grown and post-growth annealed ZnO NRs, NWs, and NRBs, and the origin of the PL emission is correlated well with the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis. Our results hint toward an epitaxial growth of aligned ZnO NRs on graphene by a vapor-liquid-solid mechanism and establish the importance of defect engineering in graphene for controlled fabrication of graphene semiconductor NW hybrids with improved optoelectronic functionalities.