Environmentally friendly growth of single-crystalline K2Ti6O13 nanoribbons from KCl flux

Single-crystalline K2Ti6O13 nanoribbons with typical width ranging from one hundred nanometers to a few hundred nanometers and length up to tens of microns were prepared from KCl flux. The nanoribbons were characterized by a range of methods including X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, selected area electron diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Ultraviolet-visible experiments showed that the K2Ti6O13 nanoribbons were wide-band semiconductors with a band width E-g = 3.4 eV. The mechanism of one-dimensional growth of the nanoribbons was attributed to the oriented attachment mechanism. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.