Growth of electrodeposited ZnO nanowires

Direct current electrodeposition method was used to deposit zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowire arrays from aqueous zinc chloride in ammonium chloride solution at 70° C onto 10 mm × 10 mm anodic alumina oxide (AAO) templates. The AAO templates featured an average pore diameter of 80 nm. A 40 nm gold layer was sputtered onto the surface of the AAO templates before electrodeposition. ZnO nanowires were grown at a potential of ^-1V versus Ag/AgCl using DC potential amperometry. Characterization of ZnO nanowires was carried out for the as-deposited nanowire array. Atomic force microscopy was used to study the surface morphology. After deposition for 2.5 hours, the length of the nanowires was approximately 3.58 μm on average. Scanning electron microscopy was used to view the cross-section of as-deposited ZnO nanowire array.