AlN Nanorods synthesized by a Mechanothermal Process
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AlN Nanorods synthesized by a Mechanothermal Process G. Rosas1, J. Chihuaque2, C. Patiño-Carachure1, R. Esparza3 and R. Pérez4 1 Instituto de Investigaciones Metalúrgicas, UMSNH, Edificio U, C.U., Morelia, Mich. 58000, México 2 Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Irapuato, Apdo. Postal 179, Irapuato, Gto. 36021, México 3 Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA 4 Instituto de Ciencias Físicas, UNAM, P.O. Box 48-3, Cuernavaca, Mor. 62251, México ABSTRACT Well-crystallized AlN nanorods have been produced by mechanical milling and subsequent annealing treatment of the milling powders (mechanothermal process). High purity AlN powders were used as the starting material. Mechanical milling was carried out in a vibratory SPEX mill for 30 h, using vials and balls of silicon nitride. The annealing treatment was carried out at 1200 ºC for 10 min. The characterization of the samples was performed by Xray diffractometry and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). TEM observations indicated that the synthesized nanorods consisted of 30 nm in diameter and 100 nm in length. High resolution electron microscopy observations have been used in the structural characterization. AlN nanorods exhibit a well-crystallized structure. The growing direction of the nanorods is close to the [001] direction. The structural configurations have been explored through comparisons between experimental HREM images and theoretically simulated images obtained with the multislice method of the dynamical theory of electron diffraction. INTRODUCTION AlN nanorods have attracted interest because of their important electronic and emission properties and potential applications such as light emitting diodes and higher sensitivity sensors [1,2]. Furthermore, this material has other interesting properties including high thermal conductivity, an excellent thermal expansion match to silicon, chemical stability, good mechanical strength, and non toxicity [3]. There have been a variety of investigations dedicated to the preparation and characterization of different AlN nanostructures. These include techniques mainly chemical vapor deposition (CVD) [4,5], arc discharge direct nitridation [6] and vapor liquid-solid (VLS) [7]. A wide variety of 1D AlN nanostructures with different sizes and morphologies such as: nanorods [8,9], nanobelts [10], nanoneedles [11] and nanowires [12,13] etc. have been reported. However, there have been no reports in the literature of the AlN nanorods formation by mechano-thermal process. In this method the mechanical milling is using to reduce at nanoscale regimen the crystal size and subsequently an annealing treatment is conducted. The advantages of this technique are their simplicity, low temperature and low cost. Therefore, in this investigation, we report the synthesis of perfect single-crystal AlN nanorods using a mechano-thermal procedure. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS The synthesis of AlN nanorods was carried out using a mechano-thermal process. This technique involv
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