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Formation of hollow iron oxide tetrapods via a shape-preserving nanoscale Kirkendall effect
Jie Lian1, Kelvin Anggara, Ming Lin
1Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, 117543, Singapore; Institute for Materials Research & Engineering, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), 3 Research Link, 117602, Singapore.
Abstract:
Hollow iron oxide tetrapods are synthesized by exposing iron precursors to hollow ultrathin PtS tetrapods. Surprisingly, the heterogeneous nucleation and growth of iron takes place exclusively within the PtS interior. Oxidation of the resulting iron tetrapod produces a hollow iron oxide shell via a shape-preserving Kirkendall effect which preserves the morphology of the original tetrapod with remarkably high precision, offering a robust synthetic route to hollow iron oxide nanostructures of unprecedented geometry.
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