One-dimensional nanowires of pseudoboehmite (aluminum oxyhydroxide γ-AlOOH)

We report the discovery of a 1D crystalline structure of aluminum oxyhydroxide. It was found in a commercial product of fibrous pseudoboehmite (PB), γ-AlOOH, synthesized easily with low cost. The thinnest fiber found was a ribbon-like structure of only two layers of an Al-O octahedral double sheet having a submicrometer length along its c axis and 0.68-nm thickness along its b axis. This thickness is only slightly larger than half of the lattice parameter of the b-axis unit cell of the boehmite crystal (b/2 = 0.61 nm). Moreover, interlayer splittings having an average width of 1 nm inside the fibrous PB are found. These wider interlayer spaces may have intercalation of water, which is suggested by density functional theory (DFT) calculation. The fibers appear to grow as almost isolated individual filaments in aqueous Al-hydroxide sols and the growth direction of fibrous PB is always along its c axis.