Multitwinned Spinel Nanowires by Assembly of Nanobricks via Oriented Attachment: A Case Study of Zn₂TiO₄

Abstract

Nanowires with twinned morphology have been observed in many cubic-phase materials including spinel. We study systematically the formation of multitwinned Zn(2)TiO(4) nanowires based on a solid-solid reaction of ZnO nanowires with a conformal shell of TiO(2), which is deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD). By varying the solid-state reaction temperature, reaction time, and TiO(2) shell thickness, the formation process is carefully analyzed with the help of transmission electron microscopy. It is found that the multitwins develop through an oriented attachment of initially separated spinel nanobricks and a simultaneous Ostwald ripening process. The oriented assembly of the individual bricks is strongly dependent on annealing conditions, which is required to favor the motion and interaction of the bricks. This mechanism differs dramatically from those proposed for twinned nanowires grown with the presence of metal catalysts. Our result provides new insights on controlling the morphology and crystallinity of designed 1-D nanostructures based on a solid-state reaction route.

Controllable synthesis of Zn2TiO4@carbon core/shell nanofibers with high photocatalytic performance

“…Another set of the fringes spacing was ca. 0.26 nm, corresponding to the (3 1 1) plane of inverse spinel crystal structure of Zn 2 TiO 4 [9,23,24]. Besides, some new dim lattice fringes were observed at the edge of Zn 2 TiO 4 grains, which are most likely (0 0 2) lattice fringes of graphite carbon [25,26].…”

Revealing Controllable Nanowire Transformation through Cationic Exchange for RRAM Application

“…ternary species. 22,23,25 However, we obtained binary and single crystalline TiO 2 by cationic exchange. It is worth mentioning that we can modulate the reactants to fabricate various heterojuctions by electronegativity differences in high vacuum systems.…”

ZnO nanowire arrays – Pattern generation, growth and applications

“…Through the solid-solid interfacial reaction, the 3D nanostructures were transformed into hierarchical ZnAl 2 O 4 nanostructures conserving their initial shape, as presented in Fig. 15h TiO 4 spinel nanowires will be formed rather than porous or tubular nanostructures [37].…”