Fabrication of ZnO "dandelions" via a modified Kirkendall process.

We report that in addition to the fabrication of hollow nanomaterials, the Kirkendall-type diffusion can also be utilized in synthetic nanoarchitecture, through which low-dimensional nanobuilding blocks can be designed and organized chemically into complex geometrical conformations. Our approach may provide a new chemical alternative to materials self-organization. In principle, a great variety of inorganic "dandelions" and their nanocomposites can be tailored and fabricated through this type of total synthetic architecture.