Single-crystalline nanoporous Nb(2)O(5 )nanotubes

Single-crystalline nanoporous Nb(2)O(5 )nanotubes were fabricated by a two-step solution route, the growth of uniform single-crystalline Nb(2)O(5 )nanorods and the following ion-assisted selective dissolution along the [001] direction. Nb(2)O(5 )tubular structure was created by preferentially etching (001) crystallographic planes, which has a nearly homogeneous diameter and length. Dense nanopores with the diameters of several nanometers were created on the shell of Nb(2)O(5 )tubular structures, which can also retain the crystallographic orientation of Nb(2)O(5 )precursor nanorods. The present chemical etching strategy is versatile and can be extended to different-sized nanorod precursors. Furthermore, these as-obtained nanorod precursors and nanotube products can also be used as template for the fabrication of 1 D nanostructured niobates, such as LiNbO(3), NaNbO(3), and KNbO(3).