AIMS Materials Science, 2016, 3(2): 434-447. doi: 10.3934/matersci.2016.2.434

Research article Special Issues

Export file:

Format

  • RIS(for EndNote,Reference Manager,ProCite)
  • BibTex
  • Text

Content

  • Citation Only
  • Citation and Abstract

Tubular micro- and nanostructures of TCO materials grown by a vapor-solid method

Miguel García-Tecedor, Félix del Prado, Carlos Bueno, G. Cristian Vásquez, Javier Bartolomé, David Maestre, Tomás Díaz, Ana Cremades, Javier Piqueras

1 Dpto. Física de Materiales, Facultad de CC. Físicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040, Madrid, Spain
2 Centro de Investigación en Dispositivos Semiconductores, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP), Puebla, México

Received: , Accepted: , Published:

Special Issues: Nanomaterials for energy and environmental applications

Abstract    Full Text(HTML)    Figure/Table    Related pages

Microtubes and rods with nanopipes of transparent conductive oxides (TCO), such as SnO2, TiO2, ZnO and In2O3, have been fabricated following a vapor-solid method which avoids the use of catalyst or templates. The morphology of the as-grown tubular structures varies as a function of the precursor powder and the parameters employed during the thermal treatments carried out under a controlled argon flow. These materials have been also doped with different elements of technological interest (Cr, Er, Li, Zn, Sn). Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) measurements show that the concentration of the dopants achieved by the vapor-solid method ranges from 0.5 to 3 at.%. Luminescence of the tubes has been analyzed, with special attention paid to the influence of the dopants on their optical properties. In this work, we summarize and discuss some of the processes involved not only in the anisotropic growth of these hollow micro and nanostructures, but also in their doping.
  Figure/Table
  Supplementary
  Article Metrics

References

1. Iijima S (1991) Helical microtubules of graphitic carbon. Nature 354: 56–58.    

2. Rivaldo-Gómez CM, Cabrera-Pasca GA, Zuniga A, et al. (2015) Hierarchically structured nanowires on and nanosticks in ZnO microtubes. Sci Rep 5: 15128.    

3. Wang S, He Y, Liu X, et al. (2011) Large scale synthesis of tungsten single crystal microtubes via vapor-deposition process. J Cryst Growth 316: 137–144.    

4. Eustache E, Tilmant P, Morgenroth L, et al. (2014) Silicon-microtube scaffold decorated with anatase TiO2 as a negative electrode for a 3D Lithium-Ion Microbattery. Adv Energy Mater 4: 1301612.

5. Lang L, Xu Z (2013) Controllable synthesis of porous alpha-Fe2O3 microtube and tube in tube by non coaxial electrospinning. Chem Lett 42: 750–752.    

6. Wen Z, Wang Q, Zhang Q, et al. (2007) In situ growth of mesoporous SnO2 on multiwalled carbon nanotubes: a novel composite with porous-tube structure as anode for Lithium batteries. Adv Funct Mater 17: 2772–2778.    

7. Bae C,Yoo H, Kim S, et al. (2008) Template-directed synthesis of oxide nanotubes: fabrication, characterization, and applications. Chem Mater 20: 756–767.    

8. Maestre D, Cremades A, Piqueras J (2005) Growth and luminescence properties of micro- and nanotubes in sintered tin oxide. J Appl Phys 97: 044316.    

9. Vásquez C, Peche-Herrero A, Maestre D, et al. (2013) Cr doped titania microtubes and microrods synthesized by a vapor-solid method. Cryst Eng Comm 15: 5490–5495.    

10. Maestre D, Haeussler D, Cremades, et al. (2011) Nanopipes in In2O3 nanorods grown by a thermal treatment. Cryst Growth Des 11: 1117–1121.    

11. Wu Y, Yang P (2001) Direct observation of vapor-liquid-solid nanowires growth. J Am Chem Soc 123: 3165–3166.    

12. Ruffino F, Censabella M, Torrisi V, et al. (2014) Size selected growth of unltrathin SiO2 nanowires on surface and their decoration by Au nanoparticles. Mater Res Exp 2: 025003.

13. Yang W, Wan P, Jia MY, et al. (2015) A novel electronic nose based on porous microtubes sensor arrays for the discrimination of VOCs. Biosens Bioelectron 64: 547–553.    

14. Zhao XY, Liu B, Cao MH. (2015) Engineering microtubular SnO2 architecture assembled by interconnected nanosheets for high lithium storage capacity. RSC Advances 5:30053–30061.    

15. Lee HU, Lee SC, Lee YC, et al. (2014) Innovative three-dimensional (3D) eco-TiO2 photocatalyst for practical environmental and biomedical applications. Sci Reports 4: 6740.    

16. Dong H, Sun S, Sun L, et al. (2012) Thermodynamic-effect-induced growth, optical modulation and UV lasing of hierarchical ZnO Fabry–Pérot resonators J Mater Chem 22: 3069–3074.

17. Ortega Y, Dieker C, Jäger W, et al. (2010) Voids, nanochannels and formation of nanotubes with mobile Sn fillings in Sn doped ZnO nanorods. Nanotechnology 21: 222604.

18. Zhan J, Dong H, Sun S, et al. (2015) Surface-energy-driven growth of ZnO hexagonal microtube optical resonators. Adv Opt Mater 4: 126–134.

19. Maestre D, Hernandez E, Cremades A, et al. (2012) Synthesis and characterization of small dimensional structures of Er-doped SnO2 and Erbium-Tin-Oxide. Cryst Growth Des 12: 2478–2484.    

20. Dai ZR, Pan ZW, Wang ZL, et al. (2001) Ultra-long single crystalline nanoribbons of tin oxide. Solid State Commun 118: 351–354.    

21. Oliver PM, Watson GM, Kelsey ET, et al. (1997) Atomistic simulation of the surface structure of the TiO2 polymorphs rutile and anatase. J Mater Chem 7: 563–568.    

22. Beltran A, Andrés J, Longo E, et al. (2003) Thermodynamic argument about SnO2 nanoribbon growth. Appl Phys Lett 83: 635.    

23. Maestre D, Cremades A, Piqueras J (2004) Cathodoluminescence of defects in sintered tin oxide. J Appl Phys 95: 3027–3030.    

24. Zhou XT, Heigl F, Murphy MW, et al. (2006) Time-resolved x-ray excited optical luminescence from SnO2nanoribbons: Direct evidence for the origin of the blue luminescence and the role of surface states. Appl Phys Lett 89: 213109.

25. Kar A, Kundu S, Patra A (2011) Surface Defect-Related Luminescence Properties of SnO2 Nanorods and Nanoparticles. J Phys Chem C 115: 118–124.

26. Nogales E, García JA, Méndez B, et al. (2007) Red luminescence of Cr in β-Ga2O3nanowires. J Appl Phys 101: 033517-1–033517-4.

27. Fernández I, Cremades A, Piqueras J (2005) Cathodoluminescence study of defects in deformed (110) and (100) surfaces of TiO2 single crystals. Semicond Sci Technol 20: 239–243.

28. Urbieta A, Fernandez P, Piqueras J (2001) Cathodoluminescence microscopy of hydrothermal and flux grown ZnO single crystals. J Phys D-Appl Phys 34: 2945–2949.    

29. Dong H, Chen Z, Sun L, et al. (2010) Single-crystalline hexagonal ZnO microtube optical resonators, J Mater Chem 20: 5510–551.

30. Magdas DA, Cremades A, Piqueras J (2006) Growth and luminescence of elongated In2O3 micro- and nanostructures in thermally treated InN. Appl Phys Lett 88: 113107.

31. Yin W, Cao M, Luo S, et al. (2009) Controllable synthesis of various In2O3 submicron nanostructures using chemical vapor deposition. Cryst Growth Des 9: 2173–2178.    

32. Zeng F, Zhang X, Wang J, et al. (2004) Large scale growth of In2O3 nanowires and their optical properties. Nanotechnology 15: 596.    

33. Frank FC (1951) Capillary equilibria of dislocated crystals. Acta Crystallogr 4: 497–501.    

34. Sears GW (1955) A growth mechanism for mercury whiskers. Acta Metall 3: 361–366.    

35. Bierman MJ, Lau YKA, Kvit AV, et al. (2008) Dislocation-driven nanowires growth and Eshelby twist. Science 320: 1060–1063.

36. Wang ZL (2000) Transmission electron microscopy of shape controlled nanocrystals and their assemblies. J Phys Chem B 104: 1153–1175.    

37. Yan Y, Zhou L, Zhang J, et al. (2008) Large scale synthesis of In2O3 nanocubes under nondynamic equilibrium model. Cryst Growth Des 8: 3285–3289.    

38. Tang Q, Zhou W, Zhang W, et al. (2005) Size controllable growth of single crystal In(OH)3 and In2O3 nanocubes. Cryst Growth Des 5: 147–150.

39. Qian W, Rohrer GS, Skowronski M, et al. (1995) Open core screw dislocations in GaN epilayers observed by scanning forces microscopy and high resolution transmission electron microscopy. Appl Phys Lett 67: 2284–2286.    

40. Chen Y, Takeuchi T, Amano H, et al. (1998) Pit formation in GaInN quantum wells. Appl Phys Lett 72: 710–712.    

41. Bartolome J, Maestre D, Cremades A, et al. (2013) Composition-dependent electronic properties of indium-zinc-oxide elongated microstructures. Acta Materialia 61: 1932–1943.    

42. Maestre D, Haeussler D, Cremades A, et al. (2011) Complex defect structure in the core of Sn-doped In2O3 nanorods and its relationship with a dislocation-driven growth mechanism. J Phys Chem C 115: 18083–18087.

43. Mazeera M, Zha M, Calestani D, et al. (2007) Low temperature In2O3 nanowire luminescence properties as a function of oxidizing thermal treatments. Nanotechnology 18: 355707.

44. Wu X, Hong J, Han Z, et al. (2003) Fabrication and photoluminescence characteristics of single crystalline In2O3 nanowires. Chem Phys Lett 373: 28–32.    

45. Kumar M, Singh VN, Singh F, et al. (2008) On the origin of photoluminescence in indium oxide octahedron structures. Appl Phys Lett 92:171907.    

46. Korotcenkov G, Nazarov M, Zamoryanskaya M, et al. (2007) Cathodoluminescence emission study of nanocrystalline indium oxide films deposited b spray pyrolysis. Thin Solid Films 515: 8065–8071.    

Copyright Info: © 2016, David Maestre, et al., licensee AIMS Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licese (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)

Download full text in PDF

Export Citation

Article outline

Show full outline
Copyright © AIMS Press All Rights Reserved