Hydrothermal synthesis and characterization of ZnO nanowire arrays within anodic aluminum oxide template

Highly uniform and densely packed ZnO nanowire arrays have been successfully synthesized by a low hydrothermal method combined with Anodic Aluminum Oxide (AAO) template-filling method, and their morphology, structure and luminescence property were investigated in detail. The scanning electron microscopy images indicates that the ZnO nanowire arrays are highly ordered and their diameter and length are about 0.4 and 60 μm, respectively, precisely defined by the pore of the AAO template. Simultaneously, the ZnO nanowire arrays are indexed to hexagonal wurtzite polycrystalline as revealed by X-ray diffraction patterns. The photoluminescence spectrum of ZnO nanowire arrays is resolved into two bands centered at about 470 nm and 510 nm, and which are originated from AAO template and the oxygen vacancies of ZnO nanowire arrays, respectively. It is expected that the ZnO nanowire arrays within AAO template is a promising candidate for development of radiation detection and imaging with ultrafast and high-spatial-resolution.