Patterned Growth of ZnO Nanostructures Based on the Templation of Plant Cell Walls

A new and general approach based on vapor-phase transport technique using Au-coated plant cell walls has been developed to synthesize patterned ZnO nanostructures. Nanowires, nanodendrites and nanotowers were fabricated by adsorption of different metallic ions on plant cell walls. It is shown that plant cell wall can serve as a well-defined template to grow patterned nanostructures. Using transmission electron microscope and Raman spectroscopy, the structural characteristic of the nanostructures were investigated, exhibiting good crystallinity and hexagonal symmetry of the nanomaterials. Quite interestingly, the shape of the nanostructures can be controlled by the metallic ions adsorbed on plant cell walls. Without metallic ions, a homogeneous distribution of nanowires was obtained. On the other hand, with Ni+2 or Fe+3 ions, nanodendrites and nanotowers were observed, respectively. Our approach provides a low cost method that opens up new possibilities for the growth of patterned nanomaterials with desired shapes.