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 ABO₄ 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).