One-pot size and interior-cavity controlled synthesis of ZnO hollow micro-/nano-structured spheres

In this work, ZnO hollow micro-/nano-structured microspheres were prepared via a one-pot solution route. The size and interior-cavity of these microspheres could be easily controlled by varying the precursor concentration. The hollow spherical assemblies were composed of short rod-like building units at low precursor concentration. When the precursor concentration increased, one-dimensional (1D) "pearl-chain-like" building units formed firstly and then self organized into hollow microspheres. The organization process and ripening of "pearl-chain-like" building units could be modulated by simply altering the reaction time. When tested in photocatalytic experiments, the hollow microspheres composed of loosely packed 1D "pearl-chain-like" building units showed higher activity than the densely packed ones. This method is very simple, mild, and may provide a new strategy to synthesize hierarchical self-assembled hollow structures.