In situ application of polyelectrolytes in zinc oxide nanorod synthesis: understanding the effects on the structural and optical characteristics.

We report a facile and simple means of synthesizing a macroscopic array of ZnO nanorods with high feature densities using a modified hydrothermal approach that involves the in situ introduction of polyelectrolyte. The ZnO nanorod arrays with heights of 1.5 μm and diameters of 350 nm were consistently reproducible and were bestowed with the advantage of in situ process tunability offered by employing polyethylenimine (PEI) as a surface modifying agent.