Field-emission properties of 3D ZnO network structure synthesized with solvent thermal method

Different shapes of ZnO nanostructure may lead to different field emission properties. In this paper we first synthesized zinc oxide nanorod via a solvent hydrothermal method. The reactants are zinc nitrate hex hydrate and sodium hydroxide, organic alkali is hexamethylenetetramine (HMT, (CH₂)₆N₄) and the solvent is absolute alcohol (Lie and Zeng, 2003). With the concentration ratio of [Zn2+]:[OH^- ] changed from 1:100 to 1:10, some different structures of ZnO which include nanoflake, nano flower, and nanowire have been synthesized. With the lower ratio of sodium hydroxide, the more nanowire shape ZnO exists. The nanowires tangle together and form three-dimensional network structure which has a large surface area and benefits for field emission.