Large-Scale Aqueous Synthesis and Growth Mechanism of Single-Crystalline Metal Nanoscrolls at Room Temperature: The Case of Nickel

Here we report a simple and versatile one-pot route for the large-scale synthesis of single-crystalline Ni nanoscrolls at room temperature. The procedure is very simple, and only two chemicals (NiCl2 and commercial Mn powder) were used throughout the entire synthetic process. Through a systematic investigation on the morphologies of the products collected from different growth stages, direct evidence of the evolution process, from a flat sheet to the formation of one-sided and two-sided nanoscrolls, is presented. Further, the disassociation of the as-synthesized nanoscrolls induced by the converged transmission electron microscope (TEM) electron-beam irradiation confirms the scroll-type structures. A corresponding growth mechanism of Ni nanoscrolls is proposed. In addition, we have successfully extended this simple method to synthesize La metal nanoscrolls. We believe that this method offers an attractive and simple way for the large-scale synthesis of other metal nanoscrolls.