Aerosol assisted fabrication of two dimensional ZnO island arrays and honeycomb patterns with identical lattice structures

Two dimensional island arrays and honeycomb patterns consisting of ZnO nanocrystal clusters were fabricated on predefined TiO2 seed patterns prepared by vacuum free, aerosol assisted wet-chemical synthesis. The TiO2 seed patterns were prepared by applying an aerosol of a water soluble titanium complex on hexagonally close-packed polystyrene bead arrays for different lengths of time. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that a dot array grows into a honeycomb shape as increasing amounts of the precursor were deposited. ZnO nucleation on substrates with a dot array and honeycomb patterns resulted in the formation of two discrete patterns with contrasting fill fractions of the materials.