28 June 2015 to 3 July 2015
Africa/Johannesburg timezone
SAIP2015 Proceeding published on 17 July 2016

Catalyst-free thermal evaporation of Zn powder at atmospheric pressure

30 Jun 2015, 16:10
1h 50m
Board: A.178
Poster Presentation Track A - Division for Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials Poster1

Speaker

Dr Theo Muller (University of the Western Cape)

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Abstract content <br> &nbsp; (Max 300 words)<br><a href="http://events.saip.org.za/getFile.py/access?resId=0&materialId=0&confId=34" target="_blank">Formatting &<br>Special chars</a>

Zinc-oxide is a direct band-gap semiconductor material and in its nanoscale form exhibits novel optical and electronic properties. A myriad of forms and shapes have been produced by a variety of deposition methods. These structures are of interest to researchers for application in various fields such as optoelectronics, sensors, biomedicine and solar cells. Thermal chemical vapour deposition is one such deposition method favoured by researchers. Thermal evaporation is based on the thermal sublimation of the source material, and in this work a simple method was utilized whereby zinc (Zn) powders have been heated to a temperature above both its boiling and melting point. The catalyst-free experiment was conducted in an open-ended quartz tube, at atmospheric pressure in air. No carrier gas was used in what is a pre-cursor experiment to controlled thermal chemical vapour deposition. Electron microscopy analysis revealed the growth of micro-sized tetrapods and pencils that contain both zinc and oxygen, with tapered nano-sized tips formed by the stacking of nanospheres of decreasing diameter.

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Please indicate whether<br>this abstract may be<br>published online<br>(Yes / No)

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Primary author

Dr Theo Muller (University of the Western Cape)

Co-authors

Prof. Christopher Arendse (Physics Dept., UWC) Dr David Motaung (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) Dr Franscious Cummings (University of the Western Cape) Mr Hilton Tobias (University of the Western Cape)

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