Patterned growth of ZnO nanorods by micromolding of sol-gel-derived seed layer

An effective method for fabricating micropatterned ZnO nanorods without a catalyst via hydrothermal synthesis using a micromolding technique is presented. Micromolding of a sol-gel-derived seed layer was flawlessly accomplished by conformal contact of elastic mold with microscale pattern. The patterned growth of the nanorods over a large area of the preconfined seed layer was observed with a pattern feasibility attaining 1 μm. The orientation of the resulting crystalline nanorods was observed to be normal to the seed layer while characteristic sizes of the nanorods did not show any dependences on the diameter of the seed particles. The presented synthetic process can provide a simpler and more inexpensive way for the fabrication of an array of one-dimensional nanostructures using a wet-chemical method.