Preparation and characterization of lanthanum borate nanowires

Lanthanum borate nanowires had been fabricated by reacting lanthanum oxide and boron with carbon nanotubes at 1100 °C. Electron microscopy studies show that the nanowires have a single-crystal structure with uniform diameters of ∼ 15 nm and lengths up to several micrometers. The growth mechanism of LaBO3 nanowires could be basically attributed to a CNTs template-confined reaction process; carbon nanotubes confine the reaction in a local space during the reaction. The morphology of lanthanum borate nanowires depends on the shape of the carbon nanotubes at high reaction temperatures.