Effective Regulation of ZnO Surface Facets for Enhanced Photoluminescence Properties Assisted by Zinc Quaternary Ammonium Salts

Novel ZnO twined-mushroom structures highly exposed in (001̅) planes were fabricated via a facile solvothermal synthesis with assistance of a zinc quaternary ammonium salt in the methanol–water solvent to show enhanced photoluminescence properties. A series of ZnO morphologies regulated with different surface facets were obtained in both MeOH–H₂O and EtOH MeOH–H₂O solvents respectively, tuning the proportion of alcohol. The self-aggregation mechanism was proposed based on the time-controlled experiment to evaluate the formation of twined-mushroom structures. The selective adsorptions of anions from zinc salt precursors determine the shape of subunits and direct the subunits, which act as building blocks to form the order aggregations.