Abstract
Uniform hierarchical star-like ferrous tungstate (FeWO4) is synthesized in a facile manner via a biomolecule-assisted green route without the need for using pre-fabricated templates and reductive agents. l-cysteine in this protocol was not only skillfully useful as a complexing and reducing agent, but also utilized as a structure-directing agent for the formation of star nanostructure. The as-prepared FeWO4 nanostars were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, etc. The results indicate that thickness of the star-like FeWO4 orderly assembled by the nanosheets is ~50 nm. The concentrations of l-cysteine and reaction time play important roles in the assembly of the star-like nanostructure. The morphology of FeWO4 dramatically varies from nanowires (diameter of ~20 nm) to nanoblades with an average thickness of 40 nm, then to the hierarchical star-like FeWO4 according to the changes of experiment conditions. The resulting FeWO4 nanostars with higher order symmetries were phase-pure and possess single crystalline structure. In addition, the star-like FeWO4 shows a small ferromagnetic ordering at low temperature. Moreover, a coordination adsorption and oriented attachment and Ostwald ripening mechanism are proposed for explaining the formation process of star-like FeWO4.
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Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the National Science Foundation of China (Grants 91022032, 20871001, 50973001 and 31070730), the Important Project of Anhui Provincial Education Department (ZD2007004-1), the Science Foundation for Excellent Youth Scholars of Higher Education of Anhui Province (2011SQRL016ZD, 2009SQRZ023), 211 Project of Anhui University (2009QN012A).
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Zhang, J., Zhang, Y., Yan, JY. et al. A novel synthesis of star-like FeWO4 nanocrystals via a biomolecule-assisted route. J Nanopart Res 14, 796 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-012-0796-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-012-0796-6