Functional ceramics play a key role in technology, particularly in piezoelectric sensors and actuators, ferroelectric power generation, and durable semiconductors used in sensors and memristors. In this study, we report a versatile wet chemical synthesis approach, converting the surface of functional tetrapodal zinc oxide (t-ZnO) to common metal hydroxides. We performed structural, morphological, and interface characterization and explored the subsequent application of various t-ZnO@metal hydroxide/oxide core–shell structures. The t-ZnO core was initially uniformly coated with different metal hydroxides, forming distinct platelets in a core–shell architecture. Interface studies were conducted to investigate the chemical, structural, and morphological properties of these hybrid microstructures using 2D scanning nano X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), bulk XRD, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Raman spectroscopy. Our findings highlight the potential of exceptional t-ZnO structures as versatile templates, offering their morphology for the synthesis of derived oxides and hydroxides of many other elements while leveraging their structural advantages.
Chakraborty et al. (2026) studied this question.