The effects of particle surface termination by zinc or oxygen were evaluated for composites containing micro-sized ZnO particles with rod shapes (17% oxygen terminations) or ball shapes (67% oxygen terminations), and it was found that the rods gave a conductivity (1.2 x 10(-16) S m(-1)) half that given by the ball-shaped particles (2.4 x 10(-16) S m(-1)). Both composites containing the micro-sized particles showed a conductivity almost two orders of magnitude lower than that of the LDPE reference material (1.2 x 10(-14) S m(-1)). When a 5 nm thick silica coating was applied to the particles, the silica encapsulation eliminated the difference between the particles and resulted in both cases in an increase in conductivity by an order of magnitude to ca. 2 x 10(-15) S m(-1). The conductivity was still lower than that of the pristine polyethylene polymer. It was concluded that neither the particle morphology nor the inter-particle distance (1 mu m for rods and 8 mu m for balls) had any effect on the conductivity of the composites for identically terminated particles, while demonstrating that the conductivity of these materials relies uniquely on the particle surface terminations. In contrast, a markedly reduced conductivity was observed for composites containing the same particles but terminated with aliphatic hydrocarbon tails, the conductivity for both rod-shaped and ball-shaped particles (1 x 10(-16) S m(-1)) being reduced to even lower values than for the pristine particles without surface modification. The same trend was observed with the 25 nm ZnO nanoparticles, showing a record low conductivity of 1 x 10(-17) S m(-1) for 3 wt% nanoparticles with aliphatic hydrocarbon tails. In practical applications, this would permit higher operation voltages than currently employed HVDC cable systems by controlling the resistivity of the composite insulation for various electric fields and temperatures and making it possible to tailor the dielectric design of cable components.

A protocol for the aqueous synthesis of ca. 1-mu m-long zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods and their growth at intermediate reaction progression is presented, together with photoluminescence (PL) characteristics after heat treatment at temperatures of up to 1000 degrees C. The existence of solitary rods after the complete reaction (60 min) was traced back to the development of sea urchin structures during the first 5 s of the precipitation. The rods primarily formed in later stages during the reaction due to fracture, which was supported by the frequently observed broken rod ends with sharp edges in the final material, in addition to tapered uniform rod ends consistent with their natural growth direction. The more dominant rod growth in the c direction (extending the length of the rods), together with the appearance of faceted surfaces on the sides of the rods, occurred at longer reaction times (>5 min) and generated zinc-terminated particles that were more resistant to alkaline dissolution. A heat treatment for 1 h at 600 or 800 degrees C resulted in a smoothing of the rod surfaces, and PL measurements displayed a decreased defect emission at ca. 600 nm, which was related to the disappearance of lattice imperfections formed during the synthesis. A heat treatment at 1000 degrees C resulted in significant crystal growth reflected as an increase in luminescence at shorter wavelengths (ca. 510 nm). Electron microscopy revealed that the faceted rod structure was lost for ZnO rods exposed to temperatures above 600 degrees C, whereas even higher temperatures resulted in particle sintering and/or mass redistribution along the initially long and slender ZnO rods. The synthesized ZnO rods were a more stable Wurtzite crystal structure than previously reported ball-shaped ZnO consisting of merging sheets, which was supported by the shifts in PL spectra occurring at ca. 200 degrees C higher annealing temperature, in combination with a smaller thermogravimetric mass loss occurring upon heating the rods to 800 degrees C.