They have a wurtzite structure and are c-axis-oriented on the seeded FTO thin films, as shown in Figures  2

to 3. Interestingly, the ZnO NWs homoepitaxially form on the seed layer, especially on the free surface of polar c-plane ZnO NPs [42, 43]. Their growth is limited by the mass transport of chemical precursors in solution. Both the structural morphology of the ZnO seed layer and the chemicals used in solution govern the typical structural properties of the ZnO NWs such as their length, diameter, and density. The ZnO NWs are not perfectly aligned vertically (i.e., slightly tilted with respect to the normal to the surface) since the polar c-plane ZnO NPs exhibit a significant mosaicity selleck compound (i.e., the c-plane is slightly tilted with respect to the surface plane). Furthermore, ZnO NWs are twisted to each other since the seed layer does not have any in-plane orientation [50], as expected in polycrystalline thin films, and hence drives their STA-9090 order in-plane orientation by homoepitaxial relationship. Figure 1 FESEM images. (a, c, e, g) 40° tilted view and (b, d, f, h) top view of the (a, b) as-grown bare ZnO NWs, (c, d) as-grown ZnO/CdTe core-shell NW arrays, and ZnO/CdTe core-shell NW arrays annealed at (e, f) 300°C and (g, h) 450°C for 1 h, respectively. Figure 2 XRD patterns, degree of preferred orientation, and texture coefficients. (a) XRD patterns

of the as-grown and annealed ZnO/CdTe core-shell NW arrays at 300°C and 450°C for 1 h. (b) Degree Farnesyltransferase of preferred orientation as well as <531 > and <100 > texture coefficients C531 and C100 as a function of annealing temperature. Figure 3 HRTEM image and Fourier-filtered enhancement. (a) HRTEM image of an as-grown ZnO/CdTe core-shell NW. The insets are Fourier-filtered enhancements along the [100] and [1-10] zone axes of the ZnO NW and CdTe NG, respectively. (b) Fourier-filtered enhancement collected at the ZnO/CdTe

interface, as depicted in the blue rectangular area in (a). Importantly, the CdTe NGs uniformly cover the ZnO NWs from their bottom to their top both for as-grown and annealed ZnO/CdTe core-shell NW arrays. The CdTe shell thickness varies in the range of 50 to 100 nm and is see more typically larger on top of the ZnO NWs than on the vertical sidewalls. This indicates that a larger amount of CdTe is deposited on top of the ZnO NWs. The crystallite size as deduced from the Debye-Scherrer law is instead about 32 nm and thus is smaller than the range of the CdTe shell thickness, showing that several layers of CdTe NGs have been deposited. Basically, it also turns out that some CdTe NGs can cover several ZnO NWs, as depicted in Figure  1. The as-grown CdTe NGs have a zinc-blend structure and are polycrystalline, as shown by the XRD patterns in Figure  2a. No epitaxial relationships are thus expected with ZnO NWs since no strong preferential orientation is revealed.