Morphosynthesis of hierarchical ZnO replica using butterfly wing scales as templates

Zinc oxide (ZnO) materials with butterfly wing scales microstructures have been synthesized by using natural butterfly wings as templates. Microstructure characters of original butterfly wing scales are maintained faithfully and intactly in the biomorphic ZnO materials. FESEM and TEM observations show the morphology of the original scales and ZnO replicas. HRTEM reveals that the ZnO replicas are proved to be polycrystalline with the major planes {1 0 0}, {0 0 2} and {1 0 1}.