ZnO nanowires strips growth: Template reliability and morphology study

In this work we report on hydrothermal growth of ZnO nanostructures obtained by using strip-shaped resist templates made by electron beam lithography, with particular focus on: (i) the effects of materials used and processing on the template adhesion and its stability during wet growth; (ii) the influence of the template pattern dimensions on the nanowires morphology. Templates made of patterned films with methylmethacrylate-methacrylic acid copolymer showed greater adhesion and stability with respect to the commonly used poly (methylmethacrylate) electron resist or to the use of thin adhesion-promoter photoresist layers. The growth of nanowires in strip-shaped methyl methacrylate-methacrylic acid copolymer templates has been investigated using typical hydrothermal growth parameters and a marked dependence of nanowires length and diameter has been found on the template size for strips narrower than about 2 μm. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.