Benzyl Alcohol and Transition Metal Chlorides as a Versatile Reaction System for the Nonaqueous and Low-Temperature Synthesis of Crystalline Nano-Objects with Controlled Dimensionality

The reaction of transition metal chlorides with benzyl alcohol leads at low temperatures to oxidic nanostructures with low-dimensional particle shapes such as nearly spherical titania anatase nanoparticles, vanadium oxide nanorods, and tungsten oxide nanoplatelets. The process is simple, allows a scale-up in gram quantities, and leads to highly crystalline materials. Ethanol solutions containing tungsten oxide nanoparticles exhibit blue luminescence upon UV irradiation at room temperature.