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Abstract: A facile route using simple hydrothermal reaction and sequential calcinations to synthesise three-dimensional flower-like Cd(OH)^sub 2^ architectures without employing templates or matrix for self-assembly is presented. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the as-synthesised samples reveal clearly that all diffraction peaks match well with the hexagonal phase of Cd(OH)^sub 2^. The flower-like structures are composed of nanosheets with a thickness of about 50 nm, which is verified by the field-emission electron microscopy. Every flake is curled and thin, has a smooth surface and a large surface area.
1 Introduction
An unceasing pursuance in materials science and chemistry is to develop materials with better performance, which depend not only on the compositions but also on the morphologies of the materials. The properties of materials with the same composition but different morphologies could be substantially different [1, 2]. Over the past few years, nano/ microarchitectures, assemblies using nanoparticles, nanorods, nanobelts as building blocks at different levels [3, 4] and complex nano/microcrystals with well-defined shape and inner structure [5, 6] have attracted great interest because of their novel properties and application convenience. These novel architectures should facilitate a deeper understanding of the 'bottom-up' approaches, offer opportunities in searching for exciting new properties of materials and be useful for fabricating functional nanodevices [7, 8]. As a recently developed concept, the self-assembly technique has been shown to be an efficient 'bottom-up' route in fabricating functional materials with different patterns and morphologies [9-11]. Many complicated organic compounds and hierarchical architectures can be produced by this simple, spontaneous process. Through intermolecular, intramolecular and molecule/substrate interactions, various self-assembled monolayers were prepared in two-dimensional surfaces [12, 13]. However, it is still a challenge to develop a simple and novel synthetic approach for building hierarchically self-assembled architectures in various systems.
Until now, the development of facile, mild and effective methods for creating novel architectures cadmium hydroxide, Cd(OH)2 has not been reported. Cd(OH)2 is a wide bandgap semiconductor with a wide range of possible applications including solar cells, photo transistors and diodes, transparent electrodes, sensors, and so on. [14, 15]. Cadmium hydroxide is also the precursor to prepare cadmium oxide [16]. Herein, a simple solvothermal approach to fabricate ring-like Cd(OH)2 superstructures by using CdCl2 and NaOH as the reactants, and triethanolamine (TEA) as the modifying...