A facile hydrothermal synthesis route to single-crystalline lead iodide nanobelts and nanobelt bundles

Single-crystalline PbI2 nanobelt bundles have been prepared using lead monoxide powder and hydroiodic acid as reagents at the assistance of dodecylamine. The assembled PbI2 nanobelt bundles can be spilt into nanobelts through long-playing sonication. The prepared nanobelt bundles consist of several nanobelts and the nanobelts have lengths of tens of microns, widths of 50-150 nanometers, and thicknesses ca. 20 nanometers. X-Ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) transmission electron microscopy (TEM), electronic diffraction (ED), and high-resolution transmission microscopy (HRTEM) was used to characterize the as-prepared product. The possible formation mechanism of PbI2 nanobelt bundles was tentatively proposed.