The Role of Water and Ethanol Molecular Geometry in Goveming the Growth Kinetics of Zno-Nanorods

This paper presents the influence of solvents molecular geometry on the growth mechanism of ZnO nanorods and their morphology. We observed that the wurtzite hexagonal crystal system of ZnO offers a number of interacting sites at different positions for the solvent water and ethanol molecules to influence the aspect ratio of the ZnO nanorods. ZnO nanorods were synthesized individually in water and ethanol on a highly conductive nitrogen incorporated graphene oxide (NGO) substrate. NGO was synthesized by the dual interactions of paraxylylenediamine with GO, which created an abundant quantity of electrophilic and nucleophilic centers to provide an ideal environment for the synthesis of ZnO nanorods. The successful formation of nanorods in water (NGO-ZnO/W) and ethanol (NGO-ZnO/E) was confirmed through high-resolution transmission electron microscopy.