Facile fabrication of forest-like ZnO hierarchical structures on conductive fabric substrate

Forest-like ZnO hierarchical structures were synthesized on the conductive fabric substrate via a simple one-step electrochemical deposition process. By applying externally a high cathodic voltage to the samples, ZnO microrods were aligned on the seed coated layer and then ZnO branches were formed on the pillars of ZnO microrods, which was caused by the strong deposition potential between the pillars of ZnO microrods and the Zn ²⁺ dissolved in growth solution. At the external cathodic voltage of -3 V, the optimized forest-like ZnO hierarchical structures exhibited high density, high porosity, and good crystallinity. These fabricated forest-like ZnO hierarchical structures are potentially useful for electronic and chemical sensing applications.