A novel combustion method to prepare tetrapod nano-ZnO

Abstract

Tetrapod nano-ZnO was prepared based on a novel combustion method: melting–combustion method (MCM). Industrial pure zinc was melted and then ignited by the flame of acetylene and oxygen gas mixture at a proper ratio. Nano-ZnO was obtained by condensation of the combusting product, and then was examined by XRD showing that the production was pure zinc oxide without other impurities. FESEM, TEM and HRTEM were used to characterize the structure features and appearance of the product. The results showed that the zinc oxide was largely tetrapod of 20–30 nm in diameter and 200–300 nm long in the four legs and a bottleneck phenomenon was also observed on several legs. Based on these analyses, growth mechanism was further discussed.