Hierarchically Nanostructured Coordination Polymer: Facile and Rapid Fabrication and Tunable Morphologies

Hierarchically nanostructured coordination polymer Ce(1,3,5-BTC)(H2O)(6) architectures with tunable morphologies have been successfully prepared on a large scale via a simple and rapid solution phase method at room temperature. The assynthesized products are characterized by X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy, respectively. A possible splitting formation mechanism for the interesting architectures has been proposed to interpret the growth process. By rationally adjusting the synthetic parameters such as concentration, reaction temperature, surfactant, solvent, static, and ultrasonic treatment, Ce(1,3, 5-BTC)(H2O)(6) with straw-sheaflike, flowerlike, wheatearlike, strawlike, bundlelike, and urchinlike architectures, and nanorods can be selectively obtained. This facile, rapid, mild, cost-effective, reproducible, and environment-friendly growth strategy has considerable potential, and could readily be extended to the growth of other nano/microscaled metal-organic materials with novel morphologies and unique properties.