Large-scale synthesis of single-crystalline MgO with bone-like nanostructures

Uniform bone-like MgO nanocrystals have been prepared via a solvothermal process using commercial Mg powders as the starting material in the absence of any catalyst or surfactant followed by a subsequent calcination. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements indicate that the product consists of a large quantity of bone-like nanocrystals with lengths of 120–200 nm. The widths of these nanocrystals at both ends are in the range of 20–50 nm, which are 3–20 nm wider than those of the middle parts. Explorations of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and selected area electronic diffraction (SAED) exhibit that the product is high-quality cubic single-crystalline nanocrystals. The photoluminescence (PL) measurement suggests that the product has an intensive emission centered at 410 nm, showing that the product has potential application in optical devices. The advantages of our method lie in high yield, the easy availability of the starting materials and permitting large-scale production at low cost. The growth mechanism was proposed to be related with solvent’s oxidation in the precursor formation process and following nucleation and mass-transfer in the decomposition of the precursor.