Selective oxidation synthesis of MnCr2O4 spinel nanowires from commercial stainless steel foil

Yongjun Chen*, Zongwen Liu, Simon P. Ringer, Zhangfa Tong, Xuemin Cui, Ying Chen*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    42 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    For the first time, MnCr2O4 single single-crystalline nanowires were simply synthesized by heating commercial stainless steel foil (Cr0.19Fe0.70Ni0.11) under a reducing atmosphere. The nanowires have an average diameter of 50 nm and a length of about 10 μm. Some nanowires are sheathed with a thin layer of amorphous silicon oxide. Photoluminescence measurements revealed that the nanowires exhibit an emission band at 435 nm, which resulted from the oxygen-related defects in the silicon oxide sheath. It was found that the reducing atmosphere plays a key role for the nanowire growth. In the reducing atmosphere, the Mn and Cr elements in the stainless steel could be selectively oxidized because of their higher affinity for oxygen than the Fe and Ni elements. The Fe and Ni elements in the stainless steel, however, acted as the catalyst for the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth of the MnCr2O4 nanowires.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)2279-2281
    Number of pages3
    JournalCrystal Growth and Design
    Volume7
    Issue number11
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Nov 2007

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