Novel Aster-like ZnO Nanowire Clusters for Nanocomposites
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Novel Aster-like ZnO Nanowire Clusters for Nanocomposites Mikhail Ladanov1, 2, 3, Manoj Ram2, 3, Ashok Kumar2, 3, Garrett Matthews4 1
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States. 3 Nanotechnology Research and Education Center, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States. 4 Department of Physics, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States. 2
ABSTRACT ZnO nanostructures have attracted a great deal of interest because of their biocompatibility and outstanding optical and piezoelectric properties. Their uses are widely varying, including incorporation in sensors, solar cells, and nanogenerators. Biological systems are yet another area of application of ZnO nanowires. Apart from their electrical and optical properties, ZnO nanostructures can be used for the mechanical reinforcement of existing biomimetic scaffolds such as collagen and/or other biodegradable polymers (poly(lactic acid), polyglycolide, poly(alkyene succinate)s or polyhydroxylalkanoates). In this work, we have demonstrated a cheap and comparatively facile hydrothermal growth method for the bulk production of ZnO nanostructures exhibiting an aster-like geometry. The novel nanostructures of ZnO can be used as reinforced material to biopolymers. The aster shape has presented an increased surface area, providing a means for enhancing the stabilization of the gels and\or polymers. With controllable growth of ZnO nanostructures this method allows the geometry which could be tuned for maximal coupling between the two phases of composite and increased mechanical strength. INTRODUCTION ZnO is a biocompatible piezoelectric II-VI semiconductor with a wide direct band gap of 3.37 eV and large exiton binding energy of 60 meV. Recently, ZnO nanostructures have attracted great attention as a promising functional material due to its suitability for application in UV lasers[1, 2], light emitting diodes[3], sensors[4-6], nanogenerators[7-9] and solar cells. Due to biocompatibility[10, 11], ZnO can be used as a functional material in implantable devices or even as a reinforcing material for different biopolymers. In this case bulk growth of structures with large surface area to volume ratios while keeping the effective volume large enough for successful incorporation into biopolymers is desired. Many methods have been used to prepare ZnO nanowires, including using chemical vapor deposition[4, 12], metal–organic chemical deposition[13, 14], pulsed laser deposition[15], physical vapor deposition[13, 16], vapor-liquid-solid methods[9, 17] and hydrothermal methods[1, 18, 19]. The hydrothermal method is one of the most simple and cost effective methods, making the scaling up of production straightforward. Growth of ZnO nanostructures using the hydrothermal method has been studied extensively as it is a simple way to produce various shapes and geometries of nanostructures. The use of modifying agents, various substrates,
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