Synthesis and characterization of BaAl2O4 nanorods by a facile solvothermal method

Porous BaAl2O4 nanorods were successfully synthesized by a facile solvothermal method. The structural properties of the sample were systematically investigated by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectrophotometer (DRS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) techniques. The characterization results revealed that the structure of the rod-shaped BaAl2O4 was hexagonal. The sample prepared by the solution phase chemical method has higher surface area and monomodal pore size distributions. Furthermore, the valence states and the surface chemical compositions of BaAl2O4 were further identified by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). This study provides a simple method to prepare rod-shaped BaAl2O4 in large scale, which broadens their practical applications. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.