title: Facile synthesis of zinc hydroxide carbonate flowers on zinc oxide nanorods with attractive luminescent and optochemical performance.
abstract: A simple synthesis route was designed to fabricate a functional composite, zinc hydroxide carbonate (ZHC) flowers on zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods. The hydrolysis of hexamethylenetetramine (HMT) can generate various species which are slowly released and gradually change reaction modes in a Zn(NO(3))(2)/HMT solution. As a result, ZnO nanorods and ZHC flowers can be sequentially synthesized and connect very well under constant experimental conditions. The obtained composite has the advantages of both components and exhibits attractive properties. For instance, ZHC flowers on ZnO nanorods exhibit strong blue emission under the excitation of ultraviolet light, and dye-sensitized solar cells with the annealed composite as photoanode achieve much higher conversion efficiency than pure nanorod arrays.
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composite and Functional Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.forename: Jia-Jun
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ling
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Xi-Wen
authors.initials: XW
authors.lastname: Du