A novel chemically-induced nanorod to quantum dot transition is reported in ZnO. This transition is achieved using co-surfactants in a marginally polar solvent in chimie douce (soft chemical) conditions. This is different from the physical instability driven transitions reported so far in metal nanowires and polymers. A suitable mechanism for the observed phenomenon has been proposed. There is ongoing effort to understand the precise physics underlying this phenomena.

Ref: RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 15154-15158