This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Zinc Oxide Nanostructures: Synthesis and Characterization" that was published in Materials

Zinc Oxide nanostructures are important for many applications, specifically for developing novel catalysts and sensors which our research group has been working on. The objectives of this thesis are: (1) synthesis and characterization of complex ZnO nanostructures; (2) development of synthesis protocols for high-yield and reliable synthesis of nanostructures. In this thesis, chapter 1 introduces the background of nanoscience and nanotechnology, with a focus on nanomaterials. In chapter 2, the fundamental knowledge of ZnO and relevant characterization techniques are introduced, specifically the crystallography of ZnO wurtzite structure and the scanning (transmission) electron microscopy. Several goals have been achieved and they are reported in chapter 3 and 4. First, the nano-pyramid decorated microwires were fabricated. A growth mechanism for those complex nanostructures was proposed. Second, surface modification such as grooved surfaces of ZnO nanostructures has been realized. Grooved nanowires, microbelts, and micrometer-scale tetra-pods are discussed. Third, the effects of oxygen partial pressure on the growth of ZnO have been investigated. All the ZnO nanostructures reported in this thesis were synthesized by a physical vapor deposition method. The field-emission scanning electron microscope was used to examine the morphologies of the synthesized nanostructures. Aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy provided information on the fabricated nanostructures.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) in its nanostructured form is emerging as a promising material with great potential for the development of many smart electronic devices. This book presents up-to-date information about various synthesis methods to obtain device-quality ZnO nanostructures. It describes both high-temperature (over 100 C) and low-temperature (under

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a wide band gap semiconductor with an energy gap of 3.37 eV at room temperature. It has been used considerably for its catalytic, electrical, optoelectronic, and photochemical properties. ZnO nanomaterials, such as quantum dots, nanorods, and nanowires, have been intensively investigated for their important properties. Many methods have been described in the literature for the production of ZnO nanostructures, such as laser ablation, hydrothermal methods, electrochemical deposition, sol-gel methods, chemical vapour deposition, molecular beam epitaxy, the common thermal evaporation method, and the soft chemical solution method. The present Special Issue is devoted to the synthesis and characterization of ZnO nanostructures with novel technological applications.

Zinc-Based Nanostructures for Environmental and Agricultural Applications shows how zinc nanostructures are being used in agriculture, food and the environment. The book has been divided into two parts: Part I deals with the synthesis and characterization of zinc-based nanostructures such as biogenic, plant, microbial, and actinobacteria mediated synthesis of zinc nanoparticles, Part II is focused on agri-food applications such as antibacterial, antifungal, antimicrobial, plant disease management, controlling post-harvest diseases, pesticide sensing and degradations, plant promotions, ZnO nanostructure for food packaging application, safe animal food and feed supplement, elimination of mycotoxins, and veterinary applications. Part III reviews technological developments in environmental applications such as risks and benefits for aquatic organisms and the marine environment, antiseptic activity and toxicity mechanisms, wastewater treatment, and zinc oxide-based nanomaterials for photocatalytic degradation of environmental and agricultural pollutants. The book discusses various aspects, including the application of zinc-based nanostructures to enhance plant health and growth, the effect on soil microbial activity, antimicrobial mechanism, phytotoxicity and accumulation in plants, the possible impact of zinc-based nanostructures in the agricultural sector as nanofertilizer, enhancing crop productivity, and other possible antimicrobial mechanisms of ZnO nanomaterials. - Explores the impact of a large variety of zinc-based nanostructures on agri-food and environment sectors - Outlines how the properties of zinc-based nanostructures mean they are particularly efficient in environmental and agricultural application areas - Assesses the major challenges of synthesizing and processing zinc-based nanostructured materials

Recent rapid development of electronics and electro-optical devices demands affordable and reliable materials with enhanced performance. Forming nanocomposites of already well-known materials is one possible route towards novel functional materials with desirable synergistic enhanced properties. Incompatible chemical properties, mismatched crystal structures and weak bonding interactions between the substances, however, often limit the number of possible nanocomposites. Moreover, using an inexpensive, facile, large-area and flexible fabrication technique is crucial to employ the new composites in industrially viable applications. This thesis focuses on the synthesis and characterization of different zinc oxide/graphene (ZnO/GR) nanocomposites, well suited for optoelectronics and photocatalysis applications. Two different approaches of i) substrate-free random synthesis, and ii) template-assisted selective area synthesis were studied in detail. In the first approach, ZnO nanoparticles/rods were grown on GR. The obtained nanocomposites were investigated for better GR dispersity, electrical conductivity and optical properties. Besides, by adding silver iodide to the nanocomposite, an enhanced plasmonic solar-driven photocatalyst was synthesized and analyzed. In the second approach, arrays of single, vertically aligned ZnO nanorods were synthesized using a colloidal lithography-patterned sol-gel ZnO seed layer. Our demonstrated nanofabrication technique with simple, substrate independent, and large wafer-scale area compatibility improved the alignment and surface density of ZnO nanorods over large selective growth areas. Eventually, we found a novel method to further enhance the vertical alignment of the ZnO nanorods by introducing a GR buffer layer between the Si substrate and the ZnO seed layer, together with the mentioned patterning technique. The synthesized nanocomposites were analyzed using a large variety of experimental techniques including electron microscopy, photoelectron spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, photoluminescence and cathodoluminescence spectroscopy for in-depth studies of their morphology, chemical and optical properties. Our findings show that the designed ZnO/GR nanocomposites with vertically aligned ZnO nanorods of high crystalline quality, synthesized with the developed low-cost nanofabrication technique, can lead to novel devices offering higher performance at a significantly lower fabrication cost.

The book deals with novel aspects and perspectives in metal oxide and hybrid material fabrication. The contributions are mainly focused on the search for a new group of advanced materials with designed physicochemical properties, especially an expanded porous structure and defined surface activity. The proposed technological procedures result in an enhanced activity of the synthesized hybrid materials, which is of great importance when considering their potential fields of application. The use of such materials in different technological disciplines, including aspects associated with environmental protection, allows for the verification of the proposed synthesis method. Thus, it can be stated that those aspects are of interdisciplinary character and may be located at the interface of three scientific disciplines—chemistry, materials science, and engineering—as well as environmental protection. Furthermore, the presented scientific scope is in some way an answer to the continuous demand for such types of materials and opens new perspectives for their practical use

This book presents a review of recent advances in ZnO-based nanomaterials and devices. ZnO as a nanomaterial has gained substantial interest in the research area of wide bandgap semiconductors and is considered to be one of the major candidates for electronic and photonic applications. ZnO has distinguished and interesting electrical and optical properties and is considered to be a potential material in optoelectronic applications such as solar cells, surface acoustic wave devices, and UV emitters. ZnO's unique properties have attracted several researchers to study its electrical and optical properties. As a nanostructured material, ZnO exhibits many advantages for nanodevices. Moreover, it has the ability to absorb the UV radiation.

Chemical processes provide a diverse array of valuable products and materials used in applications ranging from health care to transportation and food processing. Yet these same chemical processes that provide products and materials essential to modern economies, also generate substantial quantities of wastes and emissions. Green Chemistry is the utilization of a set of principles that reduces or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances in design. Due to extravagant costs needed to managing these wastes, tens of billions of dollars a year, there is a need to propose a way to create less waste. Emission and treatment standards continue to become more stringent, which causes these costs to continue to escalate. Green Chemistry and Engineering describes both the science (theory) and engineering (application) principles of Green Chemistry that lead to the generation of less waste. It explores the use of milder manufacturing conditions resulting from the use of smarter organic synthetic techniques and the maintenance of atom efficiency that can temper the effects of chemical processes. By implementing these techniques means less waste, which will save industry millions of dollars over time. - Chemical processes that provide products and materials essential to modern economies generate substantial quantities of wastes and emissions, this new book describes both the science (theory) and engineering (application) principles of Green Chemistry that lead to the generation of less waste - This book contains expert advise from scientists around the world, encompassing developments in the field since 2000 - Aids manufacturers, scientists, managers, and engineers on how to implement ongoing changes in a vast developing field that is important to the environment and our lives

Union between top-down and bottom-up assembly is inevitable when scaling down physical, chemical, and biological sensors and probes. Current sensor/probe-based technologies are firmly founded on top-down manufacturing, with limitations in cost of production, manufacturing methods, and material constraints. As an alternative to such limitations, contemporary synthesis techniques for one-dimensional nanostructures have been combined with established methods of micro-fabrication for the development of novel tools and techniques for nanotechnology. More specifically, this dissertation is a systematic study of the synthesis and characterization of ZnO nanostructures for piezoelectric applications. Within this study the following goals have been achieved: (1) rational design and control of a diversity of novel ZnO nanostructures, (2) improved understanding of polar-surface-dominated (PSD) phenomena among Wurtzite crystal structures, (3) confirmation of Tasker's Rule via the synthesis, characterization, and modeling of polar-surface-dominated nanostructures, (4) measurement of the surface-charge density for real polar surfaces of ZnO, (5) confirmation of the electrostatic polar-charge model used to describe polar-surface-dominated phenomena, (6) dispersion of ZnO nanobelts onto the selective layers of surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices for gas sensing applications, (7) manipulation of ZnO nanostructures using an atomic force microscope (AFM) for the development of piezoelectric devices, (8) fabrication of bulk acoustic resonator (BAR) and film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) devices based on the integrity of individual ZnO belts, (9) electrical characterization of a ZnO belt BAR device, (10) prediction and confirmation of the electrical response from a BAR device using a one-dimensional Krimholt-Leedom-Matthaei (KLM) model, and (11) development of a finite element model (FEM) to accurately predict the electrical response from ZnO belt BAR and FBAR devices in 3D.