Gelatin-assisted hydrothermal synthesis of single crystalline zinc oxide nanostars and their photocatalytic properties.

Biotemplate-assisted approach is simple and friendly to the environment. With the assistance of gelatin as a soft biotemplate and a structure-directing agent, star-like zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures have been prepared by assembly of well-defined nanorods under hydrothermal conditions. Their morphology and structures were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).