Microemulsion-based interfacial diffusion synthesis of uniform BaCO3 nanorods

Abstract

Uniform BaCO 3 nanorods were successfully synthesized by a novel microemulsion-based interfacial diffusion method using a lipophilic organic carbonate (CH 3 CH 2) 2 CO 3 as the precipitating agent. For comparison, two other similar methods, namely interfacial diffusion method in the absence of microemulsion and the traditional two-microemulsion method, were also investigated. In contrast, only micron-sized needles and irregular nanoparticles were generated via the latter two methods. We suggest a diffusion-controlled interfacial nucleation followed by oriented growth mechanism coupled with the confinement effect of microemulsion droplets to explain the formation of uniform nanorods. Selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns indicated that BaCO 3 samples produced by the three similar methods were in distinct crystalline states.