Sonochemical fabrication of 8-hydroxyquinoline aluminum (Alq3) nanoflowers with high electrogenerated chemiluminescence

Well-defined Alq3 nanoflowers were fabricated via a facile and fast sonochemical route. X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize the structure and shape of the as-prepared product. The results showed that the resulting Alq3 was composed of nanobelts with thickness about 50 nm, average widths of 200 nm, and length up to 10 μm. The Alq3 nanoflowers exhibited good electrogenerated chemiluminescence behavior.