Aerosol-Assisted Self-Assembly of Aluminum Borate (Al18B4O33) Nanowires into Three Dimensional Hollow Spherical Architectures

• Published in: Crystal growth & design Vol. 7; no. 12; pp. 2764 - 2767
• Main Authors: Zhang, Jun, Elsanousi, Ammar, Lin, Jing, Huang, Yang, Elssfah, E. M, Chen, Dongfeng, Gao, Jianming, Huang, Zhixin, Ding, Xiaoxia, Tang, Chengcun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington,DC American Chemical Society 01.12.2007
• Subjects: Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Exact sciences and technology; Low-dimensional structures (superlattices, quantum well structures, multilayers): structure, and nonelectronic properties; Materials science; Methods of nanofabrication; Nanoscale materials and structures: fabrication and characterization; Physics; Quantum wires; Self-assembly; Surfaces and interfaces; thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties); Scanning electron microscopy; Catalysts; Organic dye; Spray coatings; Photocatalysis; Aluminium Borates; Self-assembly; Monocrystals; Transmission electron microscopy; Temperature effects; Morphology; Aerosols; Nanowires; Catalyst activity; Formation mechanism; Nanorod; Nanostructured materials; Nickel oxide; Nanomaterial synthesis; Crystal structure
• ISSN: 1528-7483; 1528-7505
• DOI: 10.1021/cg070492s

In this work, we report a new scheme for the generation of 3D hollow spherical architectures with single-crystal aluminum borate nanowires as building blocks, which are in situ formed in liquid droplets by a spray pyrolysis technique. The hollow structures were investigated by SEM and TEM microscopy observations in detail. Our comparative experiments show that the morphologies of the products depended less on the reaction conditions, whereas the crystal structures are related to the reaction temperature. The possible formation mechanism for the 3D hollow architectures has been discussed. As such, with a judicious choice of suitable materials, this technique should be extendable to other systems to directly grow curved, 3D-ordered assemblies built from 1D nanowires. The as-obtained aluminum borate (Al18B4O33) nanomaterials were used as the supports of nickel oxide as the photocatalyst on the degradation of dye brilliant red (X-3B) and showed an excellent ability to improve the photocatalytic activities compared to Al18B4O33 nanorods as supports.