Core-decomposition-facilitated fabrication of hollow rare-earth silicate nanowalnuts from core-shell structures viathe Kirkendall effect

• Published in: Nanoscale 2015-08, Vol.7 (32), p.13715-13722
• Main Authors: Zhou, Wenli, Zou, Rui, Yang, Xianfeng, Huang, Ningyu, Huang, Junjian, Liang, Hongbin, Wang, Jing
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Catalysis; Conversion; Diffusion; Formations; Kirkendall effect; Nanostructure; Rare earth metals; Strategy
• ISSN: 2040-3364; 2040-3372
• DOI: 10.1039/c5nr02684a

Hollow micro-/nanostructures have been widely applied in the fields of lithium ion batteries, catalysis, biosensing, biomedicine, and so forth. The Kirkendall effect, which involves a non-equilibrium mutual diffusion process, is one of many important fabrication strategies for the formation of hollow nanomaterials. Accordingly, full understanding of the interdiffusion process at the nanoscale is very important for the development of novel multifunctional hollow materials. In this work, hollow Y sub(2)SiO sub(5) nanowalnuts have been fabricated from the conversion of YOHCO sub(3)SiO sub(2) core-shell nanospheres viathe Kirkendall effect. More importantly, it was found that in the conversion process, the decomposition of YOHCO sub(3) core imposes on the formation of the Y sub(2)SiO sub(5) interlayer by facilitating the initial nucleation of the Kirkendall nanovoids and accelerating the interfacial diffusion of Y sub(2)O sub(3)SiO sub(2) core shell. The simple concept developed herein can be employed as a general Kirkendall effect strategy without the assistance of any catalytically active Pt nanocrystals or gold motion for future fabrication of novel hollow nanostructures. Moreover, the photoluminescence properties of rare-earth ion doped hollow Y sub(2)SiO sub(5) nanoparticles are researched.