Effect of substrate pretreatments on the growth of ZnO micro/nanotube arrays by a hydrothermal method

The effects of substrate pretreatments,such as modifying the substrate with ZnO nanoparticles,drying the substrate with highly pure nitrogen and soaking the substrate with hydrochloric acid,on the growth of ZnO micro/nanotube arrays were systematically investigated by using a hydrothermal method.The relationship between substrate surface characteristics and the growth of ZnO micro/nanotube arrays was discussed based on ZnO microstructure.It is indicated that ZnO micro/nanotube arrays with different sizes,morphologies and distributions can be obtained on indium-tin oxide(ITO) substrates pretreated by highly pure nitrogen and hydrochloric acid,respectively.The growth mechanism of ZnO micro/nanotubes showed that the Zn-atom surface termination of ZnO played the key role for formation of the micro/nanotubes.