A facile hydrothermal synthesis route to single-crystalline lead iodide nanobelts and nanobelt bundles

Single-crystalline PbI ₂ nanobelt bundles have been prepared using lead monoxide powder and hydroiodic acid as reagents at the assistance of dodecylamine. The assembled PbI ₂ nanobelt bundles can be spilt into nanobelts through long-playing sonication. The prepared nanobelt bundles consist of several nanobelts and the nanobelts have lengths of tens of microns, widths of 50-150 nanometers, and thicknesses ca. 20 nanometers. X-Ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) transmission electron microscopy (TEM), electronic diffraction (ED), and high-resolution transmission microscopy (HRTEM) was used to characterize the as-prepared product. The possible formation mechanism of PbI ₂ nanobelt bundles was tentatively proposed.