Scientists in China and the UK have made tungsten oxide (WO3) nanorods using an electron beam in one minute.
The WO3 was treated with an amine “molecular knife” that cut the particles under the beam’s irradiation.
Previous ways of making these nanorods have involved harsh conditions, high reaction temperatures and elaborate routes. The rods can be used in catalysis, writing-reading-erasing memory devices and as a negative electrode in lithium ion batteries, say the researchers.
Read the ‘hot’ PCCP paper today:
Accelerated electron beam induced breakdown of commercial WO3 into nanorods in the presence of triethylamine
G Dawson, W Zhou and R Blackley
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/c1cp22596k
