Electric Field-Controlled Crystallizing CaCO3 Nanostructures from Solution.

The role of electric field is investigated in determining the structure, morphology, and crystallographic characteristics of CaCO3 nanostructures crystallized from solution. It is found that the lattice structure and crystalline morphology of CaCO3 can be tailed by the electric field applied to the solution during its crystallization. The calcite structure with cubic-like morphology can be obtained generally without electric field, and the vaterite structure with the morphology of nanorod is formed under the high electric field. The vaterite nanorods can be piled up to the petaliform layers. Both the nanorod and the petaliform layer can have mesocrystal structures which are piled up by much fine units of the rods with the size of several nanometers. Beautiful rose-like nanoflowers can be self-arranged by the petaliform layers. These structures can have potential application as carrier for medicine to involve into metabolism of living cell.

Direct synthesis of ultrafine tetragonal BaTiO3 nanoparticles at room temperature.

A large quantity of ultrafine tetragonal barium titanate (BaTiO3) nanoparticles is directly synthesized at room temperature. The crystalline form and grain size are checked by both X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The results revealed that the perovskite nanoparticles as fine as 7 nm have been synthesized. The phase transition of the as-prepared nanoparticles is investigated by the temperature-dependent Raman spectrum and shows the similar tendency to that of bulk BaTiO3 materials. It is confirmed that the nanoparticles have tetragonal phase at room temperature.

Analyzing core-shell structured zinc doped MgO Wrapped Ba(1-x)Sr(x)TiO3 nanoparticles.

BST nanoparticles were directly synthesized from solution at 70 degrees C and then wrapped with zinc doped MgO in solution. This core-shell structure was analyzed by a conjunction of XRD, HRTEM, and FE-SEM. The lattice cell parameter of BST core was found to have shrinkage. The lattice cell mismatch between core and shell creates a variation of lattice cell parameter of BST core and we proposed a new method to estimate it by the XRD peak broadening effect. Two possible modes of matching the BST core and MZO shell were suggested and mode II was assigned to our core-shell structure by the observation of HRTEM and analysis of XRD data. Un-grown BST nanoparticles can also be observed by FE-SEM in fracture grains of the ceramics, which was sintered at 1350 degrees C.