MgO nanobelts using a reactive and auto-removed ZnO nanobelt template

A newly developed chemical conversion route has been used to manufacture MgO nanobelts by using prefabricated ZnO nanobelts as a template. The converted MgO nanobelts are composed of small nanocrystals with an average diameter of 12 nm. Room-temperature photoluminescence measurement shows two emission bands centered at 392 and 478 nm which are attributed to various structural defects with different densities in the MgO nanobelts. Our approach here is effective and facile without additional etching agents being introduced. Other novel MgO nanostructures may be further fabricated by this method, depending on the morphologies of ZnO nanostructure templates.