Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a metal oxide material that is interested in research due to its possibility of bandgap tailoring, doping with various types of materials as well as being able to form many structures from zero-dimensional to three-dimensional structures. All these properties allow ZnO to be used in broad applications. Several research studies have been reported on the synthesis of ZnO nanostructures by the physical vapour deposition (PVD) technique. One of the potential PVD technique is thermal evaporation process. Generally, the technique is used to grow thin-film but researchers have found a potential to be used in the growth of nanostructures due to the ability to provide high crystallinity with homogeneous and uniform nanostructures. This analysis will therefore explore more about the thermal evaporation synthesized ZnO nanostructures and the application as photocatalyst material in wastewater treatment.

In conventional lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), carbon compounds are commonly utilised as the anode owing to their great performance, low cost, and abundance. However, due to the limited storage capability of pure carbon materials that restrict further improvement of LIBs, zinc oxide (ZnO) has been one of the promising anode materials to be used as an alternative to strengthen the electrochemical performance of LIBs due to its high theoretical capacity of 987 mAh g-1. This study aims to synthesise ZnO:Al nanowires using the hot-tube thermal evaporation method. Three types of samples are made using this method by varying the concentration of 0 wt% (S1), 3wt% (S2), and 6 wt% (S3) of aluminium (Al) during the Al deposition process. The EDX findings indicated that the sample has a high proportion of zinc (Zn) and oxygen (O), with the S3 sample having the highest Al concentration after being deposited. The most substantial diffraction peak for XRD of all samples was found at (101), exhibiting a single crystalline hexagonal structure with optimum growth direction on the c-axis. For EIS analysis, the S3 sample has the lowest bulk resistance and maximum ionic conductivity. In conclusion, the ZnO sample with 3 wt% of Al as a dopant was selected as the optimum result to synthesise a homogenous surface of ZnO:Al with good crystallinity by using a hot-tube thermal evaporation process and giving the best conductivity in electrochemical performance.  

A nanostructured zinc oxide (ZnO) with different percentages of argon and oxygen gas flow rate was deposited on a silicon wafer by a simple hot tube thermal evaporation technique. The effect of different percentages of gas flow rate on the crystal structure, surface morphology and optical properties were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and RAMAN spectroscopy, respectively. The changes of morphologies from FESEM were significant where the grown ZnO nanostructures show three different shapes which are nanotripods, nanoclusters and nanorods at 5%, 10% and 25% of oxygen gas, respectively. EDX results revealed that Zn and O elements have a major percentage in the sample indicating a composition has high purity of ZnO. XRD patterns displayed the most intense diffraction peak of ZnO at (101), which exhibited a single crystalline hexagonal structure with preferred growth orientation in the c-axis. RAMAN scattering study found that synthesized ZnO shows the high intensity of E2 mode and low intensity of E1 mode attributed to all the samples having good crystal quality containing fewer structural defects. In conclusion, the E15 sample with a 25% oxygen gas flow rate was selected as an optimum result for synthesizing a homogenous surface and high crystallinity of ZnO by using a hot tube thermal evaporation process. This work can enhance the development of ZnO production in various applications.