Synthesis of hexagonal monocrystal AlN microtubes and nanowires at low temperature

This paper reports that pure hexagonal aluminium nitride microtubesand nanowires growing along the [0001] direction have beensuccessfully synthesized by directly reacting AlCl$_{3}$ withNaN$_{3}$ at low temperature (450du) under condition of non-solventsystem. The grey--white powder of reacting product was characterizedby high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), whichshows that the powder is long straight-wire morphology with outerdiameter from 40,nm to 300,nm and length up to several micrometres.The results of both electron diffraction (ED) and x-ray diffraction(XRD) indicate that the AlN microtubes have a pure hexagonalmonocrystal tubular structure with the combination of the curled AlNnanobelts. Room-temperature photoluminescence spectrum of thesynthesized sample showed an emission peak, which is closely relatedto the small size of the microtubes.