Controllable synthesis of elongated hexagonal bipyramid shaped La(OH)3 nanorods and the distribution of electric property by off-axis electron holography

Rare earth oxides/hydroxides are important emerging materials owing to their unique properties. Shape-controlled synthesis of elongated hexagonal bipyramid shaped La(OH)(3) nanorods with different aspect ratios and trigram-shaped LaCO3OH nanosheets was systematically carried out by controlling the reaction conditions. Hydrazine and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) surfactants used in synthesis are assumed to play a key "dual-template" role in determining the aspect ratio and shape of the resulting nanostructures. Elongated hexagonal bipyramid shaped La(OH)(3) nanorods were found to grow along the preferred orientation [0001]. Six equivalent crystallographic facets, , , , , , and lattice planes, were found to be exposed on the side surfaces on each nanorod as confirmed by combined transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) analyses. A double-polarization phenomenon was found to occur at the nanorod surfaces by employing off-axis electron holography, implying that the material could be used as an effective dielectric microwave absorber. La(OH)(3) nanorods with larger aspect ratios exhibit better absorption properties with respect to the maximum reflection loss and effective absorbing bandwidth. Thus, a novel method towards the reasonable design of bipyramid shaped La(OH)(3) nanorods exhibiting tunable microwave absorption properties is proposed based on our synthesis strategy.