Electrochemical route to the synthesis of ZnO microstructures: its nestlike structure and holding of Ag particles

A simple and facile electrochemical route was developed for the shape-selective synthesis of large-scaled series of ZnO microstructures, including petal, flower, sphere, nest and clew aggregates of ZnO laminas at room temperature. This route is based on sodium citrate-directed crystallization. In the system, sodium citrate can greatly promote ZnO to nucleate and directly grow by selectively capping the specific ZnO facets because of its excellent adsorption ability. The morphology of ZnO is tuned by readily adjusting the concentration of sodium citrate and the electrodeposition time. Among the series structures, the remarkable ZnO nestlike structure can be used as a container to hold not only the interlaced ZnO laminas but also Ag nanoparticles in the center. The special heterostructures of nestlike ZnO holding Ag nanoparticles were found to display the superior properties on the surface-enhanced Raman scattering. This work has signified an important methodology to produce a wide assortment of desired microstructures of ZnO.