Nanocrystal Layer Deposition: Surface-Mediated Templating of Cadmium Sulfide Nanocrystals on Zinc Oxide Architectures

Abstract

The integration of zinc oxide (ZnO) and cadmium sulfide (CdS) has shown promise in applications such as sensing and photovoltaics. We describe here a room temperature, aqueous synthetic strategy to selectively grow nanocrystalline CdS on ZnO. In particular, we describe an experimentally simple process that selectively grows a conformal nanocrystalline coating only 1 nanocrystal (10−20 nm) thick on planar and three-dimensional extended ZnO structures. We explore the synthesis, characterization, and mechanisms involved in the formation of this composite material, and we demonstrate a promising optical response from these composite structures that may prove valuable for future optoelectronic applications.