Growth of PbSO4 single-crystal nanorods and optical properties by a microemulsion approach

Single-crystal PbSO4 (anglesite) nanorods with different diameter and aspect ratios have been synthesized by a microemulsion technique in a SDS/hexane/hexanol/water microemulsion. The effect of concentration of reactants, concentration of surfactants, and temperature on the crystallization of PbSO4 nanorods was investigated. Room-temperature photoluminescence spectra of well-defined uniform PbSO4 nanorods give two strong emission bands at 410 and 435 nm, and the weak emission at 340 nm almost cannot be detected at an excitation energy of 4.6-5.17 eV. As the excitation energy decreases, the 380 urn emission becomes intensified. When the excitation energy is larger than 5 eV in the range of 5.39-5.90 eV, only the blue band at 380 nm was observed.