Single crystalline semi-nanotubes of indium germanate

• Main Authors: Yan, Chaoyi, Zhang, Tao, Lee, Pooi See
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science & Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Materials
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/94726; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/8504
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Single crystalline In2Ge2O7 nanotubes were synthesized by a thermal evaporation method. The growth mechanism of those novel seminanotubular structures was explained to be a vapor−liquid−solid (VLS) mechanism. Its morphology and structures were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The semi-nanotubes have widths of 80−500 nm and lengths of 5−20 μm. As-synthesized products were found to be single crystalline In2Ge2O7 with a monoclinic crystal structure. Indium particles serve as catalysts to direct nanotube growth. Germanium concentration nonuniformity is proposed to be the reason for a semi-nanotubular structure nucleation rather than nanotubes or nanowires.