Room-temperature preparation, characterization, and photoluminescence measurements of solid solutions of various compositionally-defined single-crystalline alkaline-earth-metal tungstate nanorods

The current report describes the systematic synthesis of single-crystalline alkaline-earth-metal tungstate AWO₄ (A = Ca, Sr, Ba) nanorods as well as a series of their crystalline solid-solution analogues Sr_1-x Ca_xWO₄ and Ba_1-xSr_xWO₄ (O < x < 1) with controllable chemical composition and morphology using a modified template-directed methodology under ambient room-temperature conditions. Extensive characterization of the resulting nanorods has been performed using diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, electron microscopy, and optical spectroscopy. The composition-modulated luminescence properties of these alkaline-earth-metal tungstate solid-solution nanorods provide for a fundamental understanding of the intrinsic optical and optoelectronic properties of these systems, suggesting, therefore, the possibility of their rational incorporation into functional nanoscale devices.