A novel and simple combustion route towards long legs nanotetrapod ZnO

The long legs nanotetrapod ZnO was synthesized by a novel combustion oxidization method without any catalyst or carrier gas at high temperature, different completely from any other thermal evaporation method. SEM and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) investigations show that the long legs nanotetrapod ZnO is high-quality single crystal. The as-synthesized product is high yield with the legs length of about 30-50 μm. Interestingly, these long legs of different nanotetrapod could be connected to each other via self-assembly under proper condition. The possible growth mechanism is discussed in detail.