• Journal of Inorganic Materials
  • Vol. 37, Issue 4, 413 (2022)

Abstract

Nanostructured sub-stoichiometric transition metal oxides hold promising applications in many areas, while challenge still remains towards their precisely controlled synthesis, particularly for those ultrafine nanowires. In present work, a carbon nanotube (CNT) inner growth based on two-step synthetic approach was adopted to achieve one-dimensional sub-stoichiometric tungsten oxides. Ammonium tetrathiotungsten((NH4)2WS4)) were encapsulated into the inner cavity of carbon nanotubes, which were thermally decomposed into tungsten oxides inside the CNTs. Characterizations confirm that the CNT-filling products are ultrafine one-dimensional W3O8 nanowires, that appears 1.23-1.93 nm in width (corresponding to four-five arrays of tungsten atomic column) and up tens of microns in length (close to that of CNTs). The non-noticeable size-dependent lattice parameters of the W3O8 nanowires and the large nanowire-CNT separation indicate a rather weak interaction between the filled W3O8 nanowires and host CNTs, which provides the opportunity to separate and probe the intrinsic properties of these ultrafine 1D W3O8 nanowires. Nevertheless, the proposed synthetic method is extendable to achieve other 1D transition metal oxides.