Influence of solvent molecular geometry on the growth of nanostructures

Ejaz, A. , Han, J. H. and Dahiya, R. (2020) Influence of solvent molecular geometry on the growth of nanostructures. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 570, pp. 322-331. (doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.02.117) (PMID:32171094)

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Abstract

Solvent properties such as surface tension, dielectric constant, and viscosity have been extensively studied over more than 150 years to understand their influence on the growth kinetics of nanostructures. Interestingly, these nanoparticles-based studies have missed the influence of solvent molecular geometry. Herein, by synthesizing ZnO nanorods on a highly conductive nitrogen incorporated graphene oxide (N-GO) substrate, we present the first study showing the influence of solvent molecular geometry on the growth mechanism of nanostructures. The solvents such as water (N-GO-ZnO-W) allow a large number of functional atoms along a, b and c-axis to coordinate in all possible directions with the metal ions of wurtzite hexagonal crystal system of ZnO and thus leads to lower aspect ratio nanorods. On the contrary, the unavailability of binding sites along a-axis for solvents such as ethanol (N-GO-ZnO-E) provides a size-limiting effect and leads to preferred growth along b and c-axis, thus generating ZnO nanorods with a higher aspect ratio. The study shows that the number of interacting atoms, carbon chain length and the solvent molecular geometry influence the aspect ratio and therefore a solvent could be used to tune the nanostructures morphology and hence the performance of devices based on them.

Item Type:Articles
Additional Information:The North West Centre for Advanced Manufacturing (NWCAM) project is supported by the European Union’s INTERREG VA Programme (H2020-Intereg-IVA5055
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Dahiya, Professor Ravinder and Ejaz, Dr Ammara
Creator Roles:
Ejaz, A.Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – review and editing, Writing – review and editing
Dahiya, R.Formal analysis, Writing – review and editing, Visualization
Authors: Ejaz, A., Han, J. H., and Dahiya, R.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering
Journal Name:Journal of Colloid and Interface Science
Publisher:Elsevier
ISSN:0021-9797
ISSN (Online):1095-7103
Published Online:03 March 2020
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2020 The Authors
First Published:First published in Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 570:322-331
Publisher Policy:Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

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Project CodeAward NoProject NamePrincipal InvestigatorFunder's NameFunder RefLead Dept
301728Engineering Fellowships for Growth: Printed Tactile SKINRavinder DahiyaEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)EP/R029644/1ENG - Electronics & Nanoscale Engineering
170185Engineering Fellowships for Growth: Printed Tactile SKINRavinder DahiyaEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)EP/M002527/1ENG - Electronics & Nanoscale Engineering