Large scale synthesis of fishbone-like ZnS nanostructures using ITO glass as the substrate

Fishbone-like ZnS nanostructures have been successfully synthesized by using a simply thermal evaporation of ZnS powders using ITO glass as the deposition substrate. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images indicated that as-grown ZnS nanostructures consisted of main spines with lengths of several micrometers and numerous secondary branches with widths of 50 to 100 nm and lengths of about 500 nm distributed on both sides of the spines. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) results reveal that both the spines and the branches grew along the [0 0 0 1] directions. A possible growth mechanism was proposed to explain the formation of complex nanostructures.