Alcoholysis route to monodisperse CoO nanotetrapods with tunable size

Monodisperse tetrapod-shaped CoO nanocrystals were prepared via the alcoholysis of cobalt (III) oleate in dodecanol at high temperature. The coordinating solvent dodecanol also acts as a reducing and morphology controller reagent. The size of the obtained CoO nanotetrapods can be well tuned by variation of the amount of dodecanol used. The chemical composition, structure and morphology of the obtained nanocrystals were characterized by using energy-dispersive x-ray analysis, powder x-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy.