Novel Zinc Oxide Nanostructures Discovery by Electron Microscopy

Zinc oxide is an important semiconducting and piezoelectric material. Structurally, due to the three types of fast growth direction: <0001>, <01 0> and <2 0> as well as the ±(0001) polar surfaces, a diversity group of ZnO nanostructures have been grown in our laboratory: including nanocombs, nanosaws, nanosprings, nanorings, nanobows and nanopropellers. This article reviews our recent progress in the synthesis and characterization of the polar surface induced ZnO nanostructures and their growth mechanisms.