Green hydrothermal synthesis of high aspect ratio wollastonite nanofibers: effects of reaction medium, temperature and time

Abstract

Wollastonite 1D nanostructures have attracted widespread concern for their wide applications in biomedical, constructions and many more, which however have been synthesized via high temperature solid state method or wet precipitation method which required organic template. Herein, a controllable green hydrothermal route is used to produce high aspect ratio wollastonite nanofibers. The effect of hydrothermal synthesis parameters on the aspect ratio of synthetic wollastonite nanofibers (SWN) were investigated and the hydrothermal formation mechanism was proposed. The formation of nanofiber starts from the nuclei formation in supersaturated solution then followed by the crystal growth. The synthesis reactions were conducted under different conditions with reaction medium containing different ethanol composition and temperature from 160 °C to 240 °C for 8 h to 32 h. The SWN produced was characterized using XRD, FTIR, TGA and FESEM analysis techniques. It is proven that all wollastonite produced were in nanofiber form with the average aspect ratio ranging from 10 to 20, except for those synthesized at 160 °C which mainly has irregular grain shape. The reaction medium consisting of 80% water and 20% ethanol, which was heated at 200 °C for 16 h, resulted in SWN with the highest aspect ratio of 20.15. The study demonstrated that the hydrothermal synthesis parameters can be manipulated to produce SWN with various aspect ratios to meet its demand in different applications.