An easy method for the room-temperature growth of spongelike nanostructured Zn films as initial step for the fabrication of nanostructured ZnO

► Nanostructured Zn grown at room-temperature with thickness of few microns. ► Thermal oxidation of Zn in ambient air for nanostructured ZnO film formation. ► The morphology is preserved during the thermal treatment. ► Zn and ZnO nanostructured films are polycrystalline.