Synthesis of metallic ReO3 nanowires

Abstract

We present the synthesis of highly crystalline metallic rhenium trioxide (ReO3) nanowires via a simple physical vapor transport at 300 °C for the first time. Based on HRTEM, the ReO3 nanowires exhibit a core of perfect cubic perovskite-type single crystal structure with a shell of thin amorphous and disordered structures of less than 2 nm in the near surface layers. Possibly this is due to proton intercalation induced by the surface reaction of single crystal ReO3 with water. In this Letter the authors demonstrate the synthesis of highly single crystalline metallic ReO3 nanowires via atmospheric pressure physical vapor deposition using ReO3 powder precursor. The crystal structure of ReO3 nanowires is confirmed as the simple cubic perovskite-type structure by HRTEM, XRD, and Raman measurements. The proton intercalation by water might be attributed to its unique surface defects identified from HRTEM measurements. Copyright © 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.