Hydrothermal synthesis and characterization of uniform α-FeOOH nanowires in high yield

Large-scale α-FeOOH nanowires with uniform diameter and high aspect ratios were synthesized via hydrothermal reaction at 100 °C. The obtained α-FeOOH nanowire was of diameter of 80 nm and length up to 1.2 μm. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results show that the nanowires are of orthorhombic structure, and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) analysis further confirms the formation of orthorhombic phase α-FeOOH. High-resolution TEM (HRTEM) studies indicate the single-crystalline nature of α-FeOOH nanowires with an oriented growth along the [001] axis direction. Based on the results of contrastive experiments, the possible mechanism for hydrothermal synthesis of α-FeOOH nanowires was also discussed.