Zinc oxide nanowhiskers with multipod structures have been fabricated on copper-coated Si wafer by sintering the mixture of ZnO and graphite powders in air. The multipod nanowhisker shows tetrapod, tripod and hexapod morphologies with legs of 100-500 nm in diameter and several microns in length. The legs of the multipod nanowhisker intercross at a central knot of the whisker. The octahedron twin nucleus is responsible for the tetrapod structure and possibly responsible for the tripod structure as well. The hexapod structure is due to a stacked nucleus of two octahedron nuclei. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.