General, room-temperature method for the synthesis of isolated as well as arrays of single-crystalline ABO4-type nanorods

Single-crystalline BaWO4 and BaCrO4 nanorods of reproducible shape and of varying sizes have been controllably prepared using a simple, room-temperature approach, based on the use of porous alumina template membranes. Aligned BaWO4 and BaCrO4 nanorod arrays can be obtained by dissolving the template. Our facile technique, which is analogous to biomineralization, offers a promising and generalized methodology to prepare other types of free-standing ABO(4) nanorods and their corresponding nanorod arrays. Extensive characterization of these samples has been performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), Raman spectroscopy, FT-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD).