Morphosynthesis and ornamentation of 3D dendritic nanoarchitectures

Complex 3D dendritic nanoarchitectures of copper hydroxide built up of ultrathin nanosheets have been synthesized progressively under nearly sustained supersaturation of impurity-free nutrients that are supplied statically from the natural oxidation of copper metal. Adjacent dendritic nanoarchitectures can further expand and eventually self-organize/merge themselves into impressive bicontinuous networks through the reaction-volume-controlled growth in formamide aqueous solution. When the simplest amino acid, glycine, was used as organic additive, high-order, shell-ornamented dendritic nanoarchitectures can be fabricated accordingly. A clear perspective is shown here that more complex nanostructured materials could be chemically synthesized under nearly sustained supersaturation and further decorated when biological molecules are used as templates.