Facile gram-scale growth of single-crystalline nanotetrapod-assembled ZnO through a rapid process

From a rapid combustion and catalyst-free method, pure single-crystalline nanotetrapod-assembled bulk nano-ZnO was grown on a gram-scale for the first time. The gram-scale bulk nano-ZnO is synthesized from ZnO powder with great reliability and repeatability, and also a high conversion efficiency. All four arms of the nanotetrapods are cone shaped and grow in the [001] direction. The photoluminescence properties of the nanotetrapod-assembled ZnO were studied and a mechanism was suggested for the growth of the bulk nanotetrapod-assembled ZnO.