Synthesis of hierarchical barium tungstate corns and their shape evolution process

Barium tungstate nanocorns with lengths of 200–800 nm and with diameters of 20–50 nm in the middle section were synthesized by a facile stepwise solution-phase method. Various comparison experiments showed that several experimental parameters, such as the volume ratio of DMF/H2O, and the quantity of urea and CTAB, played important roles for the morphological control of BaWO4 nanostructures. A possible mechanism is offered for the formation of the hierarchical nanostructures. The obtained samples are characterized by means of X-ray diffraction, energy dispersion X-ray spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy.