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Uniform ZnO nanospheres have been successfully synthesized through a facile solvothermal process. The structure and morphology of the products were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that the products were ZnO nanospheres of 300–350 nm in diameter, which were composed of nanoparticles of ca. 5–10 nm. The size of the nanospheres can be tuned from ca. 300 nm to 1 μm by changing the concentration of the reactants. The gas sensing performance of the ZnO nanospheres with different size were investigated, which indicated that the ZnO nanospheres exhibited good gas sensitivity and selectivity towards n-butanol. In addition, the gas sensitivity of the ZnO nanospheres exhibited obvious size-dependent effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Uniform Cu2O nanoparticles have been successfully synthesized through a facile additive-free aqueous solution route at room temperature. The structure and morphology of the products were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that the products were Cu2O nanocubes of 110–130nm in side length. The size of the nanocubes can be tuned from 20nm to 500nm by changing the concentration of the sodium hydroxide solution and the kind of copper salts. The visible-light photocatalytic properties of the as-obtained Cu2O products were investigated. The results showed that these Cu2O nanoparticles exhibited good photocatalytic activity towards methyl orange (MO). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Hematite (α-Fe2O3) nanostructures with different morphologies have been synthesized by a simple ethylene glycol (EG)/H2O system using FeCl3 and urea as raw materials without adding any additives. Structure and morphology of the products were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The results indicated that the as-prepared samples are α-Fe2O3 microflowers, nanospindles, nanoparticles and nanorhombohedra. The magnetic properties and visible light photocatalytic properties of the products were investigated. The magnetic hysteresis measurements showed interesting magnetic property evolution among these α-Fe2O3 products, which can be attributed to their superstructure or the shape anisotropy. The photocatalytic measurements indicated that the α-Fe2O3 samples exhibit good photocatalytic property for Rhodamine B. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Single-crystal cuprous iodide semiconductor nanospheres were fabricated via a mild low-temperature solution route by using polyvinyl pyrrolidone as capping agent and the mixture of water and polyethylene glycol 400 as solvent. The structure, morphology, and properties of the products were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, thermal gravimetry and photoluminescence spectrometry. The results showed that the products were CuI nanospheres of ca. 280–650nm in diameter and were composed of quasi-trigonal particles of ca. 20–40nm. The phase transformation temperature and the melting point of the products decreased by ca. 12 and 8°C compared with the bulk CuI. The possible formation mechanism was discussed on the basis of experimental results. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Nearly monodisperse Co3O4 nanospheres were fabricated via a facile polyethylene glycol 400-mediated solventhermal route followed by a calcination process at 500°C. The structure, morphology, and properties of the products were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, and UV–vis spectrometry. The results showed that the products were Co3O4 nanospheres of 160–170nm in diameter and were composed of nanoparticles of ca. 40nm. The possible formation mechanism was discussed on the basis of experimental results. Furthermore, optical property of the products was characterized. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Nanostructured CuO film was prepared using glass or stainless steel slices as substrate via a simple ammonia-assisted solution route at 60°C. The obtained CuO film was made up of well-crystallized nanosheets of 50–360nm in thickness and 0.7–4.5μm in width. The reaction time and the substrate have significant effects not only on the thickness, width, arrangement of the nanosheets but also on the morphology and the thickness of the films. The CuO film was characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, IR, and Raman spectroscopy techniques. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Single-crystalline cuprous iodide semiconductor nanorods were fabricated via a facile and efficient room-temperature solution process by using polyacrylamide (PAM) as a structure-directing agent, followed by heat treatment at 180 °C. The diameter and length of the nanorods were estimated to be ca. 50 nm and ca. 1 μm, respectively. And the phase-transformation temperature and decomposition temperature of the as-prepared CuI nanorods were deduced from the DSC curve of the products, which decreased markedly compared with those of the bulk CuI material. Moreover, a possible growth mechanism of the CuI nanorods based on polymer-crystal interactions in a mild aqueous solution is proposed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Various ZnO architectures like novel flowerlike structures radially assembled by rods, nails or towers and novel radialized bundled tubular structures with diverse diameter in entire length were controllably synthesized with different amine precursors by a simple surfactant-free hydrothermal process. It suggests that diverse amine sources, which possibly have different hydroxyl ion releasing rate contributing to different reaction rates, probably play an importance role in controlling the assembly of different ZnO architectures, besides temperature and time. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) results prove the ZnO belonging to wurtzite structure and room temperature photoluminescence (PL) demonstrates a high quality of the products. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]