Mn-Promoted Growth of Mg-Based Spinel and Pyroxene Nanostructures

Minghui Lin; Yushun Liu; Guozhen Zhu

doi:10.1021/acsomega.9b03519

Mn-Promoted Growth of Mg-Based Spinel and Pyroxene Nanostructures

ACS Omega. 2020 Jan 13;5(3):1566-1571. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.9b03519. eCollection 2020 Jan 28.

Authors

Minghui Lin¹, Yushun Liu², Guozhen Zhu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200240, China.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering and Manitoba Institute for Materials, University of Manitoba, 75A Chancellors Circle, Winnipeg, MB R3T 5V6, Canada.

Abstract

In this work, we demonstrate Mn-promoted growth of oxide nanostructures standing on a single-crystal MgAl₂O₄ substrate after heat treatment. Unlike the short truncated spinel pyramids under Au seeds, the addition of Mn produces spinel nanopillars with lengths of 100-300 nm and pyroxene nanowires up to 10 μm. Compared to Au seeds, Au/Mn seeds have different adsorption behavior and therefore provide an additional mass transfer path along seed surfaces that promotes the growth of nanostructures. This vaporization approach has a potential of being applicable to a wide range of complicated oxides.