Synthesis of single-crystalline lanthanum hexaboride nanowires by Au catalyst

Abstract Lanthanum hexaboride (LaB 6 ) nanowires have been successfully fabricated by the facile catalytic reaction of lanthanum (La) powders, and gas mixture of boron trichloride (BCl 3 ), hydrogen and argon, where Au was used as the catalyst. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) were used to characterize the composition, morphology and structure of the samples. Single crystal column-shape LaB 6 nanowires were obtained. It is expected that LaB 6 nanowires can provide thermionic emission, field-induced emission, and thermal field-induced emission of electrons for TEM, SEM, flat panel displays, as well as many electronic devices that require high-performance electron source.