Hydrothermal synthesis and characterization of uniform α-FeOOH nanowires in high yield

Large-scale alpha-FeOOH nanowires with uniform diameter and high aspect ratios were synthesized via hydrothermal reaction at 100 degrees C. The obtained alpha-FeOOH nanowire was of diameter of 80 nm and length up to 1.2 mu m. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results show that the nanowires are of orthorhombic structure, and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) analysis further confirms the formation of orthorhombic phase alpha-FeOOH. High-resolution TEM (HRTEM) studies indicate the single-crystalline nature of alpha-FeOOH nanowires with an oriented growth along the [001] axis direction. Based on the results of contrastive experiments, the possible mechanism for hydrothermal synthesis of a-FeOOH nanowires was also discussed. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.