Despite the attractiveness of low temperature hydrothermal processes, the synthesis of vertical ZnO nanostructures has mostly been limited to rigid substrates. Moreover, patterned growth of nanostructures is also commonly carried out on rigid substrates, since conventional optical lithography is not easily applied to polymeric substrates, as focusing and reaction of the substrate with the organic solvent used in the lithography process prove to be a challenge. Here, we demonstrate the limited work on laser writing lithography patterned growth instead of the commonly used soft lithography patterned growth of nanorods on the transparent flexible substrate polyethylene terephthalate (PET) with a practical device demonstration. The visibly-transparent nanorods on the PET platform constitute a superior structural integrity with ohmic electro-conductivity even in a highly bent state. Accordingly, this can pave the way towards integration of vertically-aligned 1D nanostructures on a flexible platform for a transparent, conformable, shock-proof and lightweight product.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.