Synthesis of Tetrapodlike Zinc Oxide Nanostructures by Inductive Heating

The inductive heating method is used to synthesize regular tetrapodlike zinc oxide nanostructures on a glass substrate. The morphology of tetrapodlike ZnO nanostructures is investigated by scanning electron microscopy. It is found that the tetrapodlike ZnO structure fabricated by inductive heating is smaller than that fabricated by PVD. Therefore, more emission sites can be generated with the tetrapodlike ZnO structures obtained by inductive heating. The field-emission characteristics of ZnO nanostructures are also measured in this letter. The measurement results show that the tetrapodlike ZnO nanostructures obtained by the inductive heating method have low turn-on electric field and high emission current. Its field-emission performance is better than that of the tetrapod ZnO emitters obtained by PVD due to its good morphology and adhesion on substrate. Because ZnO nanostructures can grow directly on a glass substrate with the inductive heating method, it is very useful for the application in the field-emission display panel.