The Annealing-Induced Shape Deformation of Hydrothermal-Grown ZnO Nanorods

The shape deformation of hydrothermal-grown ZnO nanorods is observed. After annealing at high temperature, hexagonal ZnO nanorods change to become cylinder-like ones. The adjacent nanorods tend to connect to each other to form one nanostructure. Photoluminescence measurements show that a sample annealed at 600°C has a strong ultraviolet emission with a very weak visible emission, and with increasing annealing temperature the visible emission becomes more intense. It can be concluded from analyses of the morphological changes that the surface reaction between the doped C and ZnO is the main reason for the shape deformation of the ZnO nanorods.