Controlling the Formation of Nanocavities in Kirkendall Nanoobjects through Sequential Thermal Ex Situ Oxidation and in Situ Reduction Reactions

Abdel Aziz El Mel, Pierre Yves Tessier, Marie Buffiere, Eric Gautron, Junjun Ding, Ke Du, Chang Hwan Choi, Stephanos Konstantinidis, Rony Snyders, Carla Bittencourt, Leopoldo Molina-Luna

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Controlling the porosity, the shape, and the morphology of Kirkendall hollow nanostructures is the key factor to tune the properties of these tailor-made nanomaterials which allow in turn broadening their applications. It is shown that by applying a continuous oxidation to copper nanowires following a temperature ramp protocol, one can synthesize cuprous oxide nanotubes containing periodic copper nanoparticles. A further oxidation of such nanoobjects allows obtaining cupric oxide nanotubes with a bamboo-like structure. On the other hand, by applying a sequential oxidation and reduction reactions to copper nanowires, one can synthesize hollow nanoobjects with complex shapes and morphologies that cannot be obtained using the Kirkendall effect alone, such as necklace-like cuprous oxide nanotubes, periodic solid copper nanoparticles or hollow cuprous oxide nanospheres interconnected with single crystal cuprous oxide nanorods, and aligned and periodic hollow nanospheres embedded in a cuprous oxide nanotube. The strategy demonstrated in this study opens new avenues for the engineering of hollow nanostructures with potential applications in gas sensing, catalysis, and energy storage.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2885-2892
Number of pages8
JournalSmall
Volume12
Issue number21
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jun 2016

Keywords

  • Kirkendall effect
  • hollow nanostructures
  • in situ TEM
  • oxidation
  • reduction

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