Quantitative study of interior nanostructure in hollow zinc oxide particles on the basis of nondestructive x-ray nanotomography

The complicated three-dimensional interior structures of the polycrystalline hollow zinc oxide microspheres were clearly obtained by the nondestructive nanocomputed tomography (nano-CT) technique. The parameters such as diameter, volume, porosity, and surface area were calculated by the quantitative analysis of reconstructed data. Especially, three single selected particles with different typical structures were separated and compared. With these results, the distinction of the particles can be clearly understood in nanoscale. This study reveals that nano-CT is an effective and competent tool for investigating the three-dimensional interior structures of nanomaterials in the natural environment.