Attachment-driven morphology evolvement of rectangular ZnO nanowires

The rectangular cross-sectional ZnO nanowires were synthesized in a solution method. An attachment-driven growth mechanism was proposed for the morphology evolvement of ZnO nanocrystals from nanoparticles to nanoplates and eventually to nanowires. Due to the pileup attachment of the nanoplates to recrystallize into nanowires, unique one-dimensional (ID) ZnO nanowires with the rectangular cross section were obtained, which is different from those nanowires in the previous reports. It is the first time the evidence that "oriented attachment" can occur not only for nanoparticles but also for nanoplates was obtained, suggesting that "oriented attachment" is an intrinsic behavior for nanosized materials. According to the growth model proposed based on the direct TEM observations, ZnO nanocrystals can be easily controlled as nanoparticles, nanoplates, or nanowires by tuning the synthetic parameters.