Microwave-assisted synthesis of high aspect ratio ruthenium nanorods

Poly (N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PVP)-stabilized ruthenium nanorods with high aspect ratio by refluxing ruthenium(III) chloride in n-propanol have been successfully prepared by means of a facile and rapid microwave heating for the first time. The structure and morphology of the obtained products were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), select area electron diffraction (SAED), ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometry (UV–vis), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform spectroscopy (FT-IR). XPS analysis reveals that the nanorods were in the metallic state. TEM images showed that ruthenium nanorods had an obvious one-dimensional structure with the aspect ratio ranged from 5 to 40 nm and length up to 600 nm. SAED patterns indicated that the nanorods were single-crystalline with a hexagonal structure.