Microemulsion-mediated solvothermal synthesis of tin(IV) hydrogen phosphate rose-like three-dimensional nanostructures and their electrochemical properties

Novel rose-like three-dimensional Sn(HPO4)2·H2O nanostructures self-assembled by tightly stacked nanopetals were successfully synthesized by a simple cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)/water/cyclohexane/n-pentanol microemulsion system under solvothermal conditions for the first time. A series of compared experiments were carried out to investigate the factors that influence the morphology and size of the products. It was found that the molar ratio of water to CTAB and the concentration of SnCl4 aqueous solution play important roles in the formation of the rose-like nanostructures. A possible formation mechanism of rose-like nanostructures was proposed, which may be related to the crystal structure of Sn(HPO4)2·H2O and the spherical micelles formed by the microemulsion. The electrochemical properties of Sn(HPO4)2·H2O were investigated through cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) were used to characterize the products.