Controlled synthesis and characterisation of flower-like cobalt microstructures

Flower-like cobalt microstructures have been prepared on a large scale at 80°C using absolute ethanol as solvent and hydrazine as reducing reagent. No surfactant or additive was used during the synthetic process. These cobalt microflowers with size about 4 µm composed of many nanorods radiated from the core. The as-obtained product was characterised by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The results indicate that the growth orientation of assembled nanorods is [001] direction. The initial concentration of cobalt salt and type of solvent has a significant effect on the morphology of the resultant cobalt sample. The work may provide new insights into the fabrication of other micro-/nanomaterials with similar morphology.