High carrier concentration ZnO nanowire arrays for binder-free conductive support of supercapacitors electrodes by Al doping.
Doping semiconductor nanowires (NWs) for altering their electrical and optical properties is a critical strategy for tailoring the performance of nanodevices. Here, we prepared in situ Al-doped ZnO nanowire arrays by using continuous flow injection (CFI) hydrothermal method to promote the conductivity. This reasonable method offers highly stable precursor concentration for doping that effectively avoid the appearance of the low conductivity ZnO nanosheets. Benefit from this, three orders of magnitude rise of the carrier concentration from 1016cm-3to 1019cm-3can be achieved compared with the common hydrothermal (CH) mothed in Mott-Schottky measurement. Possible effect of Al-doping was discussed by first-principle theory. On this basis, Al-doped ZnO nanowire arrays was developed as a binder-free conductive support for supercapacitor electrodes and high capacitance was triggered. It is owing to the dramatically decreased transfer resistance induced by the growing free-moving electrons and holes. Our results have a profound significance not merely in the controlled synthesis of other doping nanomaterials by co-precipitation method but also in the application of binder-free energy materials or other materials.
State Key Laboratory for Advanced Metals and Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China.
Xin
X
Zheng
State Key Laboratory for Advanced Metals and Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China.
Yihui
Y
Sun
State Key Laboratory for Advanced Metals and Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: xqyan@mater.ustb.edu.cn.
Xiaoqin
X
Yan
State Key Laboratory for Advanced Metals and Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China.
Xu
X
Sun
State Key Laboratory for Advanced Metals and Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China.
Guangjie
G
Zhang
State Key Laboratory for Advanced Metals and Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China.
Qian
Q
Zhang
State Key Laboratory for Advanced Metals and Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China.
Yaru
Y
Jiang
College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
Wenchao
W
Gao
State Key Laboratory for Advanced Metals and Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China; Key Lab for New Energy and Nanotechnology, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: yuezhang@ustb.edu.cn.
Yue
Y
Zhang
Al-doping; Conductivity; Energy storage; ZnO nanowire arrays