Formation and assembly of blue emitting water lily type ZnO flowers

Water lily type zinc oxide flowers have been successfully prepared at 80 °C by a simple solution method using zinc acetate and ammonia solution without any surfactant, structure directing agent/solvent or template. The X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy studies revealed that the concentration of zinc ions, the time of reaction and the temperature are important in controlling the formation and growth of ZnO flowers. The as-formed flowers, very similar in appearance to the water lily, exhibited a very broad emission in the visible with blue luminescence properties. TEM studies confirmed the petal formation from arrays of nanoparticles and the petals appeared to be porous in nature.

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► Synthesis of water lily type ZnO flowers at 80 °C.
► The as-formed flowers exhibited a very broad emission in the visible with blue luminescence.
► TEM studies confirmed the petal formation from arrays of nanoparticles.