Formation of thin tubular ZnO nanostructure through spontaneously formed porous Zn/ZnO nanoparticles

The diverse morphology of ZnO nanostructure demonstrates attractive applications and allows an insight into the interesting mechanism for synthesis of other nanomaterials. However, synthesis of an ultrathin ZnO nanotube is still challenging by conventional solution methods at low temperature. Here, inspired by the nanoscale Kirkendall effect on the nanoporous formation, sub-50 nm nanotubular ZnO were synthesised by a facile low-temperature hydrothermal treatment using Zn nanoparticles as precursor and seed. The present tiny nanotubes were recognised with the comparable size of spontaneously formed Zn/ZnO seed nanoparticles at an early stage, which hints at the clue to synthesise the tubular nanostructure in controllable dimensions. Moreover, the success of hierarchical tubular ZnO superstructures illustrates the possibility to achieve more complex and well-ordered superstructures by self-assembly of Zn/ZnO seeds.