Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 42: Nanostructures at surfaces I

O 42.3: Talk

Wednesday, March 28, 2012, 11:00–11:15, MA 042

Structured growth of ZnO on self-assembled monolayers — •Nivedita Yumnam, Miriam Schwarz, and Veit Wagner — School of Engineering and Science, Jacobs University Bremen, Campusring 1, D-28759 Bremen (Germany)

The architecture of ZnO nanostructures grown by electrochemical deposition coupled with its enhanced light trapping mechanism can be used as a semiconductor in hybrid solar cells. We focus on the structured electrochemical growth of ZnO nanorods through self-assembled monolayers of alkanethiols adsorbed on gold. The densely packed self- assembled monolayer of alkanethiol adsorbed on gold hinders the formation of ZnO crystals. We tune the number density and the size of the ZnO nanorods by varying the adsorption time of alkanethiol monolayers on gold and the electrochemical growth time of ZnO. In order to allow for laterally structured growth of ZnO on monolayer covered gold, we employed microcontact printing of alkanethiol on gold. Depending on deposition method and parameters our results indicate a varying degree of pinholes in the self-assembled monolayer on gold. With these pinholes the ZnO rod size and the average distance between ZnO rods can be controlled. This pinhole density is correlated to the leakage current through the self-assembled monolayer of alkanethiol determined by impedance measurements.