A general approach to functional metal oxide nanobelts: thermal decomposition of precursors and interface diffusion growth mechanism

We have developed a direct and scalable approach, based upon a thermal decomposition method under normal atmospheric pressure via an interface diffusion mechanism, for growing well-defined single-crystalline functional metal oxide nanobelts. Several metal oxide nanobelts including magnetic oxides, transparent conducting oxides, and other functional oxides can be synthesized on a large scale. The typical synthesis strategy involves the synthesis of the precursors via a solvothermal process and subsequently the fabrication of the nanobelts through thermal decomposition of the precursors at atmospheric pressure, and the sizes (the length and the width) of nanobelts can be easily tuned by modifying the heating temperature and the heating rate. This synthetic strategy might not only shed a new light on the facile, general synthesis and functional mechanisms of the functional metal oxide nanobelts, but also extend the practical applications of the nanobelts in a variety of fields.