Growth of carbon sausages filled with in situ formed tungsten oxide nanorods: Thermal dissociation of tungsten(VI) isopropoxide in isopropanol

In this article, we report a simple, one-stage, efficient synthetic method for the growth of carbon sausages filled with in situ formed tungsten oxide nanorods (CSTON), without any external catalyst. The thermal dissociation of tungsten(VI) isopropoxide, 5% w/v in isopropanol at 700°C in a closed Swagelok cell in an inert atmosphere yielded a CSTON product. The product is characterized by SEM, TEM, EDAX, C, H, N, S analysis, TGA, Raman spectroscopy, and HR-TEM. The assignment of the structure of the sausages as a carbon shell, with the central part being the WO_x, is based on SAEDS spectra. The same reaction was also conducted at a lower temperature closer to the temperatures of solvothermal reactions, at 350°C. The reaction yielded WO_x nanorods with a diameter ranging from 10 nm to 50 nm and a length of up to 6 μm.