Room-Temperature Preparation, Characterization, and Photoluminescence Measurements of Solid Solutions of Various Compositionally-Defined Single-Crystalline Alkaline-Earth-Metal Tungstate Nanorods

The current report describes the systematic synthesis of single-crystalline alkaline-earth-metal tungstate AWO 4 (A = Ca, Sr, Ba) nanorods as well as a series of their crystalline solid−solution analogues Sr 1- x Ca x WO 4 and Ba 1- x Sr x WO 4 (0 < x < 1) with controllable chemical composition and morphology using a modified template-directed methodology under ambient room-temperature conditions. Extensive characterization of the resulting nanorods has been performed using diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, electron microscopy, and optical spectroscopy. The composition-modulated luminescence properties of these alkaline-earth-metal tungstate solid−solution nanorods provide for a fundamental understanding of the intrinsic optical and optoelectronic properties of these systems, suggesting, therefore, the possibility of their rational incorporation into functional nanoscale devices.