Morphogenesis of Branched Coaxial Nanorods Formed in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

J. Phys. Chem. C, 112 (7), 2337 -2342, 2008. 10.1021/jp0755342 S1932-7447(07)05534-3
Web Release Date: January 25, 2008

Morphogenesis of Branched Coaxial Nanorods Formed in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

Fangyu Cao, Yeru Liu, Weihua Hu, and Qianwang Chen*

Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, Anhui, China

Received: July 15, 2007

In Final Form: November 15, 2007

Abstract:

Fe₃O₄/a-C branched and multibranched coaxial nanowires with a diameter around 40 nm were synthesized by pyrolysis of ferrocene in supercritical CO₂ at 450 C. The single-crystal Fe₃O₄ cores of the coaxial nanowires are continuous. Every trunk, branch, and subbranch has a similar diameter, different from fractals, dendritics, or other hierarchical structures. The branches of the coaxial nanowires are vertical to the trunks, connected together with double-wedge junctions. The branched Fe₃O₄ core is a single crystal, with each branch having a growth orientation of <100>, forming a three-dimensional framework-like three-divisional branched nanorod structure. A possible growth mechanism was proposed.

Download the full text: PDF | HTML