Study of precursor concentration ratios on low temperature solvothermal process for growth of ZnSnO₃ Nanowire Arrays.

Lead Zirconium Titanate Oxide (PZT) is a widely used piezoelectric and ferroelectric material yet its environmental hazardous potential limits future prospects. ZnSnO₃ (ZTO) or Zinc MetaStannate, shows a deformed perovskite phase similar to that in Lithium Niobate, an alternative lead-free ferroelectric material with the general formula ANbO₃ making it a possible replacement for PZT due to its non-toxic composition. The synthesis method for growth of LN-type ZTO vertically aligned nanowires uses a low temperature solvothermal process. Previous work proved that in basic conditions and on conductive substrates, a mass ratio of Zn precursor to Sn precursor of 0.9 leads to the formation of desired nanowires but growth is random across the substrate with little tunability of nanowire formation. A spatially ordered monolayer template of Aluminum doped Zinc Oxide nanocolumns on Silica Nanospheres adds another source of zinc to the reaction and will be studied to understand the effects of reaction precursors on the reaction products. The study of reaction products at different Zn and Sn precursor ratios will be measured with XRD and SEM along with EDS will be used to study the reaction products to determine which phase, either LN-type ZnSnO₃ or cubic perovskite ZnSn(OH)₆,will grow.