Preparation and characterization of hollow glass microspheres/ZnO composites

The composites of hollow glass microspheres (HGMS) coated by zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods (HGMS/ZnO) were obtained by the controlled doubled-jet precipitation method in an ethanol–water solution. The particle-size, morphology, crystal structure and optical properties of the as-prepared HGMS/ZnO composites were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectra. Moreover, we propose the mechanism that the hollow glass microspheres are modified with triethanolamine to obtain ZnO-coated composites. This method can also be applied to other substrates forming continuous films with highly ordered ZnO nanorods across the films.