New approach for fabrication of vertically oriented ZnO based field emitter derived from waste primary batteries

Highlights: • Vertically aligned zinc oxide rods derived from waste alkaline battery. • Design of sustainable method to extract ZnO rods from waste primary batteries. • Study of compositional and morphological changes in anodic material to ZnO nanorods. • ZnO rods show an excellent field emission property. In the present work, the field emission characteristics of zinc oxide (ZnO) rods extracted from waste primary alkaline batteries is demonstrated. ZnO rods were extracted from anode component of the waste primary battery via eco-friendly process using water as solvent for the first time. Earlier, synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles using waste primary battery was done using complex hydrometallurgical processes. The fabrication of ZnO based field emitter was achieved via coating of ZnO on silicon substrate using scalable spin coating process. The turn on field for ZnO rods was 4.9 Vμm⁻¹ with field enhancement factor 4655 in the high field regime. This process would certainly be of interest for the researchers working in the field of materials chemistry and environmental waste management.