Metal Organic Chemical Vapour Deposition of Vertically Aligned ZnO Nanowires Using Oxygen Donor Adducts

Vertically aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires (NWs) have been grown by liquid injection Metal Organic Chemical Vapour Deposition, using oxygen donor adducts of Me₂Zn. The growth and characterisation of the nanowires grown using [Me₂Zn(L)] where L = monodentate ethers, tetrahydrofuran (C₄H₈O) (1), tetrahydropyran (C₅H₁₀O) (2), furan (C₄H₄O) (3) and the bidentate ethers, 1,2-dimethoxyethane (C₄H₁₂O₂) (4) 1,4-dioxane (C₄H₈O₂) (5) and 1,4-thioxane (C₄H₈SO) (6) is discussed. Single crystal X-ray structures of (4), (5), (6) have been established and are included here. The ZnO NWs were deposited in the absence of a seed catalyst on Si(111) and F-doped SnO₂/glass substrates over the temperature range 350–600 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) data shows that the nanowires grown from all adduct precursors were deposited in the wurtzitic phase.