Development of Synergistic Opto-Electronic Sensing Platform based on Zinc Oxide Semiconducting Nanostructures

Potential of zinc oxide nanowires for developing a sensitive opto-electronic platform was demonstrated. Zinc oxide nanowires synthesized on insulating sapphire substrates were functionalized with an optically active receptor, 1-pyrenebutyric acid. Appropriate characterization studies including XPS and FT-IR ATR are reported. I-V curves of pristine and receptor-modified nanowires were utilized to highlight the potential of zinc oxide nano-heterostructures for developing a sensitive opto-electronic platform for p-nitrophenol sensing. Packaging issues for achieving an efficient and cost-effective sensor platform have also been outlined.