Biological mineralizing processes demonstrate how Nature can produce elegant structures through controlled organic-mineral interactions. These organics are often used to control shape, size and orientation of mineral. Based on inspiration from Nature, which often use organic-mineral or organic-ion interactions to control crystallization processes, we utilize an organic agent, Ethylenediamine (EDA), as a mineralizer to inhibit rapid hydrolysis and condensation of ZnO, and thus control crystal growth behavior. Through adjusting various parameters, such as precursor concentration as well as the molar ratio of the inorganic precursor and organic ligands, we were able to produce highly branched ZnO nanostructures, which is very promising for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). We also investigate the mechanism of this branching event.
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