Improving Morphological Quality and Uniformity of Hydrothermally Grown ZnO Nanowires by Surface Activation of Catalyst Layer

Table 1 Summary of the activation processes utilized in this work

Activation solution	Activation time (min)	NW height, h (μm)	NW diameter, ϕ (nm)	NW inclination, θ (°)	Vertical alignment factor, VAF	Density (no. of NWs per 100 μm²)	Figure of merit, FoM
H₂O₂:KOH [1:2]	5	6.77 ± 1.47	0.62 ± 0.25	85 ± 26	0.41 ± 0.36	7	201
H₂O₂:KOH [1:2]	10	4.26 ± 0.37	0.41 ± 0.11	90 ± 11	0.63 ± 0.28	140	80,257
H₂O₂:KOH [1:3]	5	5.09 ± 0.96	0.62 ± 0.23	88 ± 27	0.53 ± 0.29	19	1278
H₂O₂:KOH [1:3]	10	4.59 ± 0.56	0.39 ± 0.06	88 ± 10	0.65 ± 0.28	124	98,844
H₂O₂:NaOH [1:2]	5	7.19 ± 1.06	0.91 ± 0.25	90 ± 17	0.60 ± 0.35	3	145
H₂O₂:NaOH [1:2]	10	4.37 ± 0.57	0.36 ± 0.08	91 ± 8	0.78 ± 0.25	172	140,393
H₂O₂:NaOH [1:3]	5	5.90 ± 1.19	0.53 ± 0.26	87 ± 13	0.60 ± 0.30	12	821
H₂O₂:NaOH [1:3]	10	6.02 ± 0.81	1.00 ± 0.18	96 ± 14	0.55 ± 0.31	46	3358
HNO₃	1	4.48 ± 0.75	0.39 ± 0.10	86 ± 25	0.56 ± 0.32	14	3703
	3	5.36 ± 1.09	0.55 ± 0.19	96 ± 20	0.54 ± 0.32	24	1888
	10	5.19 ± 0.81	0.55 ± 0.15	90 ± 18	0.51 ± 0.28	12	1627