Controllable Growth of Unique Three-Dimensional Layered Basic Zinc Salt/ZnO Binary Structure

A novel three-dimensional binary structure was successfully synthesized with the assist of soluble long-chain tetraalkylammonium carboxylate zinc salt by hydrothermal treatment. The unique binary structure consists of two different crystal structures in one individual, with the head being a layered basic zinc salt (LBZS) microsphere and the body being a ZnO rod. During the synthesis process, careful concentration and time-controlled experiments were needed to achieve a key intermediate of stable self-assembled LBZS, which was subsequently converted into an LBZS/ZnO binary structure. The presence of the binary structure demonstrates a possible growth mechanism involving stepwise evolution as zinc salt -> LBZS -> LBZS/ZnO -> ZnO, giving an improvement of the understanding of the growth of ZnO in solution. Thus, this study provides the rationality for the existence of the solid-phase transformation as well as the competition relationship between the solid-phase transformation and the dissolution-renucleation process during the transformation process of LBZS to ZnO.