Porous ZnO nanobelts: synthesis, mechanism, and morphological evolutions

Porous ZnO nanobelts with rough surface and poly-crystalline nature have been developed from a facile wet chemical method. The as-prepared products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), cold field emission scanning electron microscopy (CFE-SEM), and energy dispersive analysis of X-rays (EDAX). The ZnO nanobelts were synthesized with usually 5 to 6 nm in thickness, 10 to 40 nm in width, and about several micrometers in length. A PVP promoted self-assembly mechanism is believed to be responsible for the morphology shaping process of the ZnO nanostructures. This first wet chemical synthesis of such hierarchical structures without any hard templates implies a simple and inexpensive way to prepare transition metal superstructures on a large scale for modern chemical synthesis. Optical characterization by a confocal laser Raman were also carried out to explore their optical properties; the PL and Raman results showed both good agreement with the characters of our samples and potential for future applications such as sensors and other modern technologies.