ZnO nanowires grown on carbon cloth for flexible cold cathode

Nanostructures grown on carbon cloth are recently attracted great interests for flexible field emitter and cold cathode. In this paper, we report high-aspect ratio ZnO nanowires grown on carbon cloth by a low-temperature solution chemical approach that can be used as a flexible and high performance cold cathode. The carbon cloth is covered by outward-grown ZnO nanowires uniformly and densely with spiny structures. The hybrid structures exhibits a turn-on electrical field of 4.36 V/microm and a field enhancement factor of 1157, which benefit from the high-aspect ratios of both ZnO nanowires and carbon cloth. These results demonstrate a low cost and scalable approach for flexible cold cathode lighting and field emission display.