Synthesis of ZnO, CuO and their Composite Nanostructures for Optoelectronics, Sensing and Catalytic Applications

Abstract: Research on nanomaterials has become increasingly popular because of their unique physical, chemical, optical and catalytic properties compared to their bulk counterparts. Therefore, many efforts have been made to synthesize multidimensional nanostructures for new and efficient nanodevices. Among those materials, zinc oxide (ZnO), has gained substantial attention owing to many outstanding properties. ZnO besides its wide bandgap of 3.34 eV exhibits a relatively large exciton binding energy (60 meV) at room temperature which is attractive for optoelectronic applications. Likewise, cupric oxide (CuO), having a narrow band gap of 1.2 eV and a variety of chemo-physical properties that are attractive in many fields. Moreover, composite nanostructures of these two oxides (CuO/ZnO) may pave the way for various new applications.This thesis can be divided into three parts concerning the synthesis, characterization and applications of ZnO, CuO and their composite nanostructures.In the first part the synthesis, characterization and the fabrication of ZnO nanorods based hybrid light emitting diodes (LEDs) are discussed. The low temperature chemical growth method was used to synthesize ZnO nanorods on different substrates, specifically on flexible non-crystalline substrates. Hybrid LEDs based on ZnO nanorods combined with p-type polymers were fabricated at low temperature to examine the advantage of both materials. A single and blended light emissive polymers layer was studied for controlling the quality of the emitted white light.The second part deals with the synthesis of CuO nanostructures (NSs) which were then used to fabricate pH sensors and exploit these NSs as a catalyst for degradation of organic dyes. The fabricated pH sensor exhibited a linear response and good potential stability. Furthermore, the catalytic properties of petals and flowers like CuO NSs in the degradation of organic dyes were studied. The results showed that the catalytic reactivity of the CuO is strongly depending on its shape.In the third part, an attempt to combine the advantages of both ZnO and CuO NSs was performed by developing a two-step chemical growth method to synthesize the composite NSs. The synthesized CuO/ZnO composite NSs revealed an extended light absorption and enhanced defect related visible emission.