Controllable preparation of ZnO hollow microspheres by self-assembled block copolymer

Self-assembled block copolymers are flexible frameworks and therefore developed to fabricate and design microscale and nanoscale structures. We described the solvothermal preparation of zinc oxide (ZnO) hollow microspheres through self-assembled triblock copolymer. These ZnO hollow microspheres are uniform, and can be tailored from ∼250 nm to ∼3–4 μm in size by varying the solvothermal temperature and the fractions of triblock copolymer and ZnO precursor. TEM, SEM, TG–DSC, and XRD were used to characterize the sizes, structures and morphologies of ZnO hollow microspheres.