Zinc Oxide Nano Materials: Hydrothermal Growth On Surfaces Of Materials And Its Influence On Mechanical Properties

Nano science and technology, as a frontier and interdisciplinary field for study,is now showing more and more applications and attracting more and more attentionsin many fields such as chemistry and materials, biology and medicine, informationand microelectronics or optoelectronics, energy and environment, and so on. In thefield of civil engineering and civil engineering materials, nano science andtechnology is also showing much importance. As one of the most importantmaterials included in the various nano world, zinc oxide nano materials have specialelectrical, optical, magnetic and mechanical properties that can be used in quite avariety of fields.In this paper, starting from the synthesis of ZnO nano materials, a variety ofsubstrate materials were used in the hydrothermal growth of ZnO nanowire ornanorod arrays and some other ZnO nano structures, which was aimed at wideningthe use of hydrothermal growth of nano ZnO. Then detailed studies were conductedon the hydrothermal growth of nano ZnO on carbon fibers and vermiculites toimprove their mechanical properties.Detailed speaking, the main research contents and results in this paper are asthe follows:(1) Hydrothermal growth of ZnO nano materials: a new concept on the choiceof different substrates based on different applications for the hydrothermal growthof nano ZnO was brought up. Then the influences of some parameters that wouldaffect the hydrothermal growth of nano ZnO were studied. Results showed that theinoculating of crystal seeds, the concentration of growth solution and growth timewere quite important for the growth of ZnO nano wires. ZnO nanowire arrays grownwithout substrates and a new form of ZnO nanotube clusters were got and analyzed.At the end of this part of the paper, a second hydrothermal growth was taken to getZnO nano needle and nanowire arrays.(2) ZnO nano materials grown on the surface of carbon fibers and its effectson the interface of composites: different morphologies of ZnO nanowires or nanofilms were grown on the surface of carbon fibers by hydrothermal method.Microbonding test was taken to evaluate the interface strength of the carbonfiber-resin composites. Results showed that the interface strength of nano ZnOmodified carbon fibers was improved as much as117%，and different nano ZnOmorphologies had different effects, that followed some rule. On the other hand, nanoZnO was also used to modify short carbon fibers for cement based composites, and SEM photos were taken to ensure and explain its effects.(3) ZnO nanowire arrays intercalating swelling vermiculites and specialmacroscopic mechanical properties: ZnO nanowire arrays were grown onto the innersurfaces of the vermiculites and a multilayered nanowire arrays was formed.Experiments were taken to test its mechanical properties, and results showed thatsuch a multilayered structure had some special properties such as great recovery ratefrom compressive deformation, special energy dissipation and modified compressivestrength, which was promising to be a quite light and efficient damping material.