MORPHOLOGY EVOLUTION AT NANO- TO MICRO-SCALE

Abstract

Morphology evolution of inorganic/organic crystals during crystallization is a universal growth phenomenon. In this work, we have developed a capping agent-assisted strategy to clearly identify the whole process of morphology evolution in solution growth system. One kind of morphology evolution trend with three types of morphologies of cuprous oxide ( Cu 2 O ) was kinetically observed at varying the molar ratio of EDTA/ Cu (II) under three different pH values. Two kinds of morphology evolution trends of zinc oxide ( ZnO ) were also kinetically observed in the presence of H 2 O 2 and CH 3 COOH (HAc), respectively. Simulation results show that the morphology evolution of nano- to micro-scale crystals is strongly dependent on the bonding characteristics of a growth system. The present strategy positively explores the interesting principles of morphology evolution of functional materials, and can be widely extended to nano- to micro-scale devices research.