Growth and morphologies of one- and three-dimensional MgO nanostructures

A variety of MgO nanostructures have been fabricated by a direct gas reaction route using Mg as starting material. The evaporation of Mg combined with a mixed oxygen/argon gas provided the constituents for the MgO nanostructure growth. They were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). SEM observations revealed several MgO morphologies including one-dimensional nanowires, three-dimensional cube-shaped entities and rope-like nanowires. HRTEM and SAED results indicate that they were single-crystalline face-centered cubic MgO.