Hydrogel route to nanotubes of metal oxides and sulfates

Abstract

A tripodal cholamide-based hydrogel has been employed as a template to synthesize inorganic nanotubes. Besides nanotubes of oxides such as SiO2, TiO2, ZrO2, WO3 and ZnO, nanotubes of sulfates such as the water-soluble ZnSO4 as well as of BaSO4 have been obtained using this method. An advantage of the use of the hydrogel is that metal alkoxides are not required for the synthesis of the oxide nanotubes. The nanotubes have been characterized by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy.