RESUMO
The size-controllable and highly monodispersed cuboidal barium strontium titanate (BST) nanocrystals have been successfully synthesized through a glycothermal process with no mineralizers but oleic acid as growth-directing agent. The synthesized BST nanocrystals under different glycothermal conditions were structurally characterized by XRD, IR, FESEM, TEM and HRTEM and investigated with respect to the effects of key influencing factors including the amount of oleic acid, duration of glycothermal process and 1,4-butanediol/water volume ratio in the reaction media on the formation of BST nanocrystals and their size and morphological evolution. It has been found that the oleic acid incorporated into the glycothermal system plays a decisive role in promoting the formation of cuboidal nanocrystals. It allows the BST nanocrystals to form via a nucleation-growth mechanism instead of in situ reactions and the selective chemical adsorption of oleic acid molecules on the facets with lower plane indices of newly-built BST nuclei directs them to grow into uniform cuboidal BST nanocrystals. The duration of glycothermal reactions and the polarity of reaction media can remarkably affect the dynamic process of the formation of BST nanocrystals. These regularly-shaped and highly monodispersed nanocrystals show a spontaneity of self-assembling into 2D ordered architectures when they were dispersed in organic solvents like cyclohexane and droped onto a hydrophobic surface of substrates, which creates a chance for the ferroelectric oxide nanocrystals to self-assemble into nanoscale electronic devices.
RESUMO
Coupled with XRD, BET, and TEM, the small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) technique has been effectively used to probe and characterize the submicrostructure of freshly precipitated hydrous zirconia and its evolution during digestion. It has been found that fresh hydrous zirconia particles possess an average diameter of about 5 nm and rather rough surfaces describable in terms of fractal concepts. The digestion of zirconia precipitates at 100 degrees C with their mother liquors may remarkably smooth the particles' rough surface and provoke fractal aggregation of the particles but make little change in average particle dimensions. A local dissolution-reprecipitation mechanism is regarded as a basic process to accompany particle surface smoothing, particle aggregation, and coarsening at the neck areas between joint particles, which may greatly strengthen the particle networks and enhance their resistance to crumbling while calcinated at high temperatures. On the basis of the submicrostructural features unraveled by SAXS, a coherent and significant physical picture has been raised out to demonstrate and interpret the relationship underlying the submicrostructure, the surface area variation, and the heating behavior of hydrous zirconia precipitates.
