Synthesis of single-crystalline lanthanum hexaboride nanowires by Au catalyst

Lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) nanowires have been successfully fabricated by the facile catalytic reaction of lanthanum (La) powders, and gas mixture of boron trichloride (BCl3), 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 LaB6 nanowires were obtained. It is expected that LaB6 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.