Recent progress in the electrochemical deposition of ZnO nanowires: synthesis approaches and applications

Abstract In the last decade, nanostructuration is a demanding research topic due to the observation of interesting properties and, in consequence, applications on these nanostructures. This review collects the synthesis and possible applications of ZnO nanowires grown by electrodeposition and electroless methods. Respect to the synthesis of ZnO nanowires, growth mechanism and parameters are analysed depending on the technique used, electrodeposition or electroless. The mechanism growth of the nanowires using templateless and hard-templates is analysed resulting in different architecture of the ZnO nanowires. Moreover, ZnO nanowires and hybrid materials based on ZnO are also considered. Depending on the architecture of ZnO nanowires, the properties and applications are different. This review also studies the properties and applications in which ZnO nanowires can be used and how these applications are different depending on the architecture of the nanostructure. This review gives a complete perspective referent to the synthesis, properties and application of ZnO nanowires grown by electrosynthesis techniques.