2010 journal article

Flame synthesis of hybrid nanowires with carbon shells and tungsten-oxide cores

CARBON, 48(15), 4510–4518.

By: W. Merchan-Merchan*, A. Saveliev n, W. Jimenez* & G. Salkar n

co-author countries: United States of America 🇺🇸
Source: Web Of Science
Added: August 6, 2018

We report the flame synthesis of hybrid nanowires composed of tungsten-oxide cores covered with uniform carbon shells. The synthesis is performed using 1-mm diameter tungsten probes inserted in an opposed-flow methane oxy-flame. The unique thermal and chemical composition of the generated flame tends to convert pure (99.9%) bulk tungsten into 1-D structures of unique morphology. The physical characteristics of the nanowires grown on the 1-mm diameter tungsten probe include lengths of up to 50 μm and diameters ranging from 20 to 50 nm. A two step hybrid nanowire synthesis mechanism is proposed. The initial step forms tungsten-oxide nanorods in the oxygen-rich flame region. The second step involves rapid formation of carbon shells from hydrocarbons transferred from the carbon-rich zone of the flame during the probe removal.