Facile synthesis of porous flower-like SrCO3 nanostructures by integrating bottom-up and top-down routes

This work shows that a chemical bottom-up and successive top-down approach is a good synthetic strategy for nanoporous materials. The three-dimensional (3D) flower-like SrCO3 nanocrystals have been prepared via a hydrothermal treatment process with a subsequently selective etching of the certain crystalline planes of SrCO3. Pores formed on the flowers owing to the loss of by-products of H2O and CO2. Accordingly, the original flower-like morphology of SrCO3 was not preserved upon pore formation and during continuous stirring in the synthesis. Rearrangement of the SrCO3 particles via a dissolution-recrystallization process occurred under our certain experimental conditions. Consequently, SrCO3 particles with coarser surfaces and porous structures were obtained.