Hydrothermal synthesis of uniform WO3 submicrospheres using thiourea as an assistant agent

Nearly monodisperse tungsten trioxide submicrospheres have been synthesized with tungsten acid and HCl as the starting materials and thiourea as a structure-directing agent through a facile hydrothermal method. The obtained products were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray, respectively. The results show that the WO3 submicrospheres are monodisperse with a diameter of about 800–1000 nm. The morphology of the products gradually evolutes from rods to spheres with increase of the reaction time. The formation mechanism of the WO3 submicrospheres is primarily discussed.