Facile and Rapid Synthesis of Pyrochlore W2O6·H2O Nanoplate via a Fluorinion-Assisted Hydrothermal Process

Pyrochlore W2O6 x H2O were successfully prepared via a facile and rapid hydrothermal process in the presence of fluorinion. It is worth noting that our developed method can efficiently overcome the tedious process in the preparation of nanostructured tungstic oxide in the previous reports. The as-prepared samples have been characterized by XRD, SEM and TEM. Results showed the morphologies of the samples were nanoplate and the thickness of the plate was estimated at about several nanometers. TEM image further revealed that the plates were trigonal-like with equal lengths of about 300 nm. Furthermore the selected area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern taken from a single nanoplate indicated that the nanoplates were the single crystals with a preferential growth direction along the [011] direction. The effect of the additive ions on the formation has also been discussed. It was found that the fluorinion played a key role in the formation of W2O6 x H2O nanoplates. It is hoped that our work could provide a new insight into the facile and rapid preparation of metal oxide nanomaterials.