Synthesis, Characterization, and Hierarchical Organization of Tungsten Oxide Nanorods: Spreading Driven by Marangoni Flow

Tungsten oxide nanorods were synthesized by a soft chemistry approach using tungsten alkoxide and trioctyl amine and oleic acid as the surfactants. The optical properties of the nanorods were studied. The nanorods were found to be soluble in a wide range of solvents like chloroform, cyclohexane, and so on. Upon solvent evaporation, the nanorods formed hierarchically organized solid state structures. Depending on the solvent used, the nanorods organized in different mesostructures. Moreover, the organization of the nanorods from mixtures of polar and nonpolar solvents was studied. Here, the Marangoni effect resulting from differences in the surface tensions of the two solvents was found to play a role in the organization of the nanorods. Furthermore, dip coating of the nanorod solutions on a mica substrate resulted in the formation of a uniform thin film of the nanorods, which may be useful for a variety of applications such as in electrochromic devices and in organic light emitting devices (OLEDs) using tungsten oxide as a buffer layer.