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High-quality vertically aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods were successfully grown on seeded silicon substrates p-Si(100) through microwave-assisted chemical bath deposition. Structural and morphological analyses revealed hexagonal wurtzite nanorods perpendicular to the substrate along the c-axis in the direction of the (002) plane. Optical measurements showed a high-intensity UV peak with a low broad visible peak. UV emission was compared with the visible emission having an IUV/Ivis ratio of 53. A metal-semiconductor-metalbased UV detector was then fabricated by depositing two metal contacts onto the ZnO nanorod surfaces. Current-voltage measurements revealed a highly sensitive device with a self-powered characteristic. At zero applied bias, the fabricated device showed a significant difference between the UV current and dark current. The device further showed a sensitivity of 304 × 104 to low-power (1.5 mW/cm2) 365 nm light pulses without an external bias. Photoresponse measurements demonstrated the highly reproducible characteristics of the fabricated UV detector with rapid response and baseline recovery times of 10 ms. This work introduced a simple, low-cost method of fabricating rapid-response, highly photosensitive UV detectors with zero power consumption.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs) are increasingly recognized for their potential use in various biomedical applications. However, the tendency of bare ZnO NPs to aggregate and their poor stability in the biological environment reduce their biocompatibility and lead to cytotoxicity in normal healthy cells. This study attempted to avoid this by synthesizing a novel Pluronic F-127-coated ZnO NPs and evaluating their cytotoxicity impact on normal healthy human endothelial AE.hy296 cells. The characterization results revealed that Pluronic coating process remarkably enhanced the stability of ZnO NPs and did not alter their desired crystalline structure. The cytotoxicity of bare and Pluronic F-127-coated ZnO NPs were evaluated through MTT assay and microscopy imaging. The results of the cytotoxicity tests showed that Pluronic F-127 modification significantly improved the biocompatibility and reduced the cytotoxicity of ZnO NPs toward the normal endothelial human EA.hy926 cells.Based on their high crystallinity, stability, and biocompatibility, Pluronic F-123-coated ZnO NPs hold promising potential for miscellaneous biomedical applications.

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