Single- to Triple-Wall WS2 Nanotubes Obtained by High-Power Plasma Ablation of WS2 Multiwall Nanotubes

Inorganics

Volker Brüser³  Ronit Popovitz-Biro²  Ana Albu-Yaron¹  Tommy Lorenz⁴  Gotthard Seifert⁴  Reshef Tenne¹ 

[1] Department of Materials and Interfaces, Weizmann Institute of Science, P.O. Box 26, Rehovot 76100, Israel; E-Mails:;Department of Chemical Research Support, Weizmann Institute of Science, P.O. Box 26, Rehovot 76100, Israel; E-Mail:;Leibnitz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP), Felix-Hausdorff-Straße 2, 17489 Greifswald, Germany; E-Mail:;Physikalische Chemie, Technische Universität Dresden, Bergstrasse, 66b, 01062 Dresden, Germany; E-Mails:

关键词: single-wall inorganic nanotubes;    growth mechanism;    multiwall inorganic nanotubes;    WS₂;    high power plasma ablation;    window of stability;   

DOI  :  10.3390/inorganics2020177

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The synthesis of inorganic nanotubes (INT) from layered compounds of a small size (<10 nm in diameter) and number of layers (<4) is not a trivial task. Calculations based on density functional tight-binding theory (DFTB) predict that under highly exergonic conditions, the reaction could be driven into a “window” of (meta-) stability, where 1–3-layer nanotubes will be formed. Indeed, in this study, single- to triple-wall WS₂ nanotubes with a diameter of 3–7 nm and a length of 20–100 nm were produced by high-power plasma irradiation of multiwall WS₂ nanotubes. As target materials, plane crystals (2H), quasi spherical nanoparticles (IF) and multiwall, 20–30 layers, WS₂ nanotubes were assessed. Surprisingly, only INT-WS₂ treated by plasma resulted in very small, and of a few layers, “daughter” nanotubules. The daughter nanotubes occur mostly attached to the outer surface of the predecessor, i.e., the multiwall “mother” nanotubes. They appear having either a common growth axis with the multiwall nanotube or tilted by approximately 30° or 60° with respect to its axis. This suggests that the daughter nanotubes are generated by exfoliation along specific crystallographic directions. A growth mechanism for the daughter nanotubes is proposed. High resolution transmission and scanning electron microscopy (HRTEM/HRSEM) analyses revealed the distinctive nanoscale structures and helped elucidating their growth mechanism.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.