Large-scale selective synthesis of uniform single crystalline tellurium nanowires with a diameter of 4-9 nm, and microbelts with a width of 250-800 nm and tens of micrometers in length, can be realized by a poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP)-assisted hydrothermal process. The formation of tellurium nanowires and nanobelts in the presence of PVP is strongly dependent on the reaction conditions such as temperature, the amount of PVP, and reaction time. The results demonstrated that the keys for selective synthesis of Te nanobelts and nanowires are to modulate the growth rates of (100), (101), and (110) planes in the presence of PVP and to precisely control the reaction kinetics. High-quality luminescent ultrathin t-Te nanowires with a diameter of 4-9 nm display strong luminescent emission in the blue-violet region. This approach provides a facile route for the production of high-quality tellurium nanostructures with an interesting optical property. Furthermore, the synthesized ultrathin nanowires with deep blue color and nanobelts in gray color by this approach can be well dispersed in water or ethanol, making it possible for further engineering of their surfaces to prepare other hybrid core-shell nanostructures.

A hydrothermal carbonization route has been designed for the syntheses of uniform core-shell Te@carbon-rich composite nanocables with ultrathin and ultralong Te nanowires as the core component and carbonaceous matter with remarkable reactivity as the shell, using ultralong Te nanowires of several nanometers in diameter and glucose as starting materials. The results demonstrated that the presence of uniform Te nanowires can effectively restrain the usual homogeneous nucleation of carbon spheres from the bulk solution and instead promote the heterogeneous deposition of carbonaceous matter on the backbone of Te nanowires for the formation of well-defined Te@carbon-rich composite nanocables. The diameter of the Te@carbon-rich composite nanocables could be controlled by adjusting the hydrothermal carbonization reaction time or the ratio of the tellurium and glucose, and the shell thickness of the coreshell nanocables can be varied from 2 to 25 nm. Simply removing the Te nanowire core can produce well-defined ultralong and functionalized carbonaceous nanofibers. As-prepared Te@carbon-rich composite nanocables display a strong photoluminescence in the blue-violet region. These well-defined nanocables/ nanofibers can be well dispersed in water or ethanol solution and are of high reactivity, making it possible to further engineer their surfaces or produce new hybrid materials with potential applications.

Uniform ultrathin Pt nanotubes, Pt and Pd nanowires with diameters of only several nanometers and a very‐high aspect ratio of ∼10 000 can be fabricated using ultrathin Te nanowires as both reducing agent and sacrificial template in ethylene glycol. The valences of metal precursors have a crucial effect on the morphology of the nanostructures.

Biocompatible and green luminescent monodisperse silver/phenol formaldehyde resin core/shell spheres with controllable sizes, in the range of 180 to 1000 nm, and interesting architectures (centric, eccentric, and coenocytic core/shell spheres) have been synthesized by a facile one‐step hydrothermal approach. These spheres can be used as bioimaging labels for human lung cancer H1299 cells. The results demonstrate that the nanoparticles can be internalized into cells and exhibit no cytotoxic effects, showing that such novel biocompatible core/shell structures can potentially be used as in vivo bioimaging labels. This facile one‐pot polymerization and encapsulation technique may provide a useful tool to synthesize other core/shell particles that have potential application in biotechnology.

Highly hierarchical platelike FeWO(4) microcrystals have been synthesized by a simple solvothermal route using FeCl(3) x 6 H(2)O and Na(2)WO(4) x 2 H(2)O as precursors, where ethylene glycol (EG) plays an important role as a capping agent in directing growth and self-assembly of such unique structures. In addition, a certain amount of CH(3)COONa (NaAc) was necessary for the formation of such unique FeWO(4) microstructures. The photocatalytic property of as-synthesized hierarchical FeWO(4) microcrystals has been first studied, which shows excellent photocatalytic activity for the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) under UV and visible light irradiation (modeling sunlight). Moreover, magnetic measurement indicates that hexangular FeWO(4) platelike microcrystals show a small ferromagnetic ordering at low temperature because of spin-canting of antiferromagnetic materials and surface spins of FeWO(4) nanoparticles.

Three-dimensional (3D) urchin-like MnWO4 microspheres with a diameter of ca. 1−1.2 μm assembled by nanorods with a length of 240 nm and an aspect ratio of ca. 9 have been fabricated by a cationic surfactant cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) assisted hydrothermal method. The result demonstrated that CTAB played an important role as a soft template in directing growth and self-assembly of urchin-like MnWO4 microspheres, and suitable pH values and reaction temperature are also essential for the formation of urchin-like microspheres. Magnetic measurement indicates that urchin-like MnWO4 microspheres show a weak ferromagnetic ordering at low temperature due to spin-canting and surface spins of microspheres, while much shorter MnWO4 nanorods show antiferromagnetism at low temperature.

Cross-linking reaction of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) can be initiated in the presence of copper ions, resulting in the formation of copper@cross-linked PVA nanocables by a one-step hydrothermal approach. In contrast to our previous findings in the case of silver ions, metal ions with high valency are more difficult to reduce during the cross-linking reactions under hydrothermal conditions. The variation of pH value during the reaction has significant effects on the quality of the product. Copper@cross-linked PVA nanocables with a diameter of 0.5-1 mm and length up to 100 mm can be obtained at 200 uC, accompanying the presence of some cross-linked PVA aggregates with near spherical shape and irregular shape. The pH value, reaction temperature, and reaction time play key roles in the formation of such nanocables. The results demonstrated that the crosslinking reaction in the presence of different metal ions has different reaction rates, which determine the uniformity of the product and the quality of the cable-like core-shell structures.

Large scale synthesis of uniform self-assembly Fe(3)O(4)@phenol formaldehyde resin (PFR) core-shell nanowires with 80-100 nm in diameter and 20-30 microm in length can be realized by a one-pot hydrothermal process. The optical and magnetic properties of the as-synthesized Fe(3)O(4) nanostructures have been investigated.