Nucleation mechanism of the seed of tetrapod ZnO nanostructures

Abstract

Tetrapod zinc oxide (T-ZnO) nanorods have been synthesized by evaporation and recondensation of metallic Zn under ambient conditions. The total sizes of the T-ZnO nanostructures range from 300nmto15μm with leg diameters of about 30to650nm, depending on the deposition temperature. A detailed high-resolution electron microscopy analysis showed that the center core of T-ZnO nanorods consists of four hexagonal grains with a twinlike relation. The nucleation and growth mechanism has been generated on the basis of energy considerations during a phase transition from a fullerenelike ZnO cluster to a nanometer-sized tetrahedron, which is directly visible in our high-resolution transmission electron microscopy investigations.