Preparation of SiO2Nanotubes with Controllable Inner/Outer Diameter and Length Using Hydrothermally Grown ZnO Nanowires as Templates

Through the deposition of a thin SiO2film to sheathe hydrothermally grown (HTG) ZnO nanowires (ZnO-NWs), unveiling their top portion, and then selectively removing ZnO-NWs by wet chemical etching, SiO2nanotubes (SiO2-NTs) with controllable inner/outer diameters and lengths were fabricated. The prepared SiO2-NTs with average inner/outer diameters and lengths of approximately 200/300 nm and 1.5 \mbox{$\mu$m}, respectively, exhibited a superior transmittance of 92% in the visible light spectrum. The surface roughened process using SiO2-NTs on vertical-structure GaN light-emitting diodes (VLEDs) showed additional light output improvement of about 11.6% at 350 mA and 10% at 750 mA, compared with those of VLEDs with ZnO-NWs, suggesting the effectiveness and promising applications of the proposed SiO2-NTs in optics and optoelectronics devices.