ZnO nanoparticles beaded multiwalled carbon nanotubes

Abstract

In this work, we present a very simple technique to fabricate hybrid nanomaterial system comprising of ZnO nanobeads anchored onto the cylindrical body of CNTs. This is achieved simply by heating Zn coated CNTs on a hotplate in air. By directly changing the Zn coating duration and thus coating thickness, the average ZnO particle size and interparticle distance can be readily controlled. The obtained nanoparticle are characterized to be single crystalline, following hexagonal ZnO structures. Low temperature photoluminescence at 77K and temperature dependence studies have been carried out to explore the optical property of the ZnO nanoparticles on CNTs. Based on this ZnO/MWNTs hybrid system, an ultrafast nonlinear optical switching behavior is demonstrated and three-photon adsorption of ZnO nanoparticles is observed. By using the same synthesis process, ZnO nanoparticles have also been coated on CuO nanowires.