Flower-like Co–La oxide micro/nanomaterials have been synthesized via an ethylene-glycol-mediated process, under the condition of that the mole ratio of lanthanum nitrate (La (NO3)3·6H2O) and cobalt nitrate (Co (NO3)2·6H2O) was 1:1 (based on the amount of Co (NO3)2·6H2O 0.002 mol), the dosage of urea was 2.2 g, the dosage of tetra-butyl ammonium bromide (TBAB) was 6.0 g, with magnetic stirring heating under 170 °C for 60 minutes in the 150mL ethylene glycol, the prepared precursors of Co–La oxides have regular flower-like morphology, in addition, the amount of TBAB and urea plays a significant role on the synthesis of the precursors. The flower-like Co–La oxides micro/nanomaterials were prepared after the precursors were calcinated in the muffle furnace at 800 °C for 2 h, the morphology, crystal properties and element distribution of the products were investigated by the analysis of SEM-EDX, XRD and BET, etc. The structures of these products with regular flower-like morphology are on the micrometer scale, which are hierarchically composed of nanosized building blocks, with highly polycrystalline nature, and the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area of 68.5 m2/g. Therefore, those micro/nanomaterials have been developed as promising catalytic materials for their not only keeping the high surface area of nanomaterials, but effectively inhibiting aggregation.
Converting cellulose nanocrystals into photocatalysts by functionalisation with titanium dioxide nanorods and gold nanocrystals