Stepwise assembly of nanoparticles, -tubes, -rods, and -wires in reverse micelle systems

A traditional facile method was used for the stepwise-assembly synthesis of CaSO4 center dot 2H(2)O nanoparticles, -tubes, -rods, and -wires. Sizes of these nanostructures vary from tens of nanometers to tens of microns. The key point of the stepwise-assembly process is the reaction time. The growth process was studied as a function of the reaction time and this was used to guide the synthesis of other one-dimensional nanomaterials in reverse micelle systems. The results showed that this growth process is somewhat universal in synthesizing inorganic salts with zero/one-dimensional and solid/hollow structures in reverse micelle systems. The growing mechanism was also explored and it was believed to be an assembly-based growth in association and concurrent with the surfactant-templating mechanism. ((c) Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2007).