Study on the fabrication of functional hierarchical nanostructure via selective laser sintering and localized hydrothermal synthesis of nanomaterial

Abstract

Nanowires have been a target of great scientific interest for the researchers in the field of nanotechnolo-gy. In order to utilize its quantum-confinement size effect for ballistic transport of electrons, various research regarding the use of nanowires as a component for electronic devices have been conducted. As the result, lots of techniques for the synthesis, integration, alignment are currently available for the diverse electronics.In spite of the fact that nanowires are a promising material, the difficulty in the fabrication prevents them from being used widely. Currently, the nanowire fabrication process is largely based on bottom up pro-cesses via conventional photolithography. The lithography process has several advantages in that this method can fabricate highly sophisticated structures due to its controllability, and can adopt various types of materials from metal to insulators. However, some drawbacks exist that can be a huge hindrance for the development of nanowire based electronics. These shortcomings include expensive equipments, complicated fabrication pro-cess, highly toxic materials and, thus, safety issue not only to the researchers, but to the earth. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt hydrothermal synthesis strategy to circumvent the problems and achieve the purpose of nanowire electronics.To accomplish this goal, here, we combine hydrothermal process and selective Joule heating method in-to a single step process. By doing so, fabrication of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires (NWs) for a UV sensor is made possible without any cleanroom related process. The complete process has a feature of all-solution process, that is, the process is environmentally friendly and conducted in a room condition with low temperature and an atmospheric pressure. In addition, highly trained technicians, currently required for the lithography process, are not a crucial factor in this newly developed process since it is composed of simple steps without any need of expens...