Ultrasound-assisted solution synthesis and characterization of sea urchin-like ZnO hierarchical microstructures

ZnO hierarchical microstructures with uniform sea urchin-like morphology have been successfully synthesized through a facile and reliable ultrasound irradiation route by using Zn(CH3COO)(2)center dot 2H(2)O and KOH as raw materials. The ZnO sample is investigated with XRD, SEM, TEM and HRTEM. Results indicate that the as-prepared sea urchin-like ZnO microstructures are assembled by numerous needle-like nanocrystals with the size about 2 mu m in length and about 100nm in diameter. The preferred growth orientation of these ZnO nanoneedles are along [101] direction. A blue shift in UV-vis absorption spectrum of the as-prepared ZnO sample is observed.