Temperature driven in-situ phase transformation of PbWO4 nanobelts

Monoclinic raspite PbWO4 nanobelts were synthesized by a facile composite-salt-mediated method. By in situ heating to above 538 degrees C inside the chamber of a transmission electron microscope, the raspite nanobelts transformed irreversibly to tetragonal scheelite phase. By analyzing the experimental data, three possible topotactic transformation relationships between raspite and scheelite phases have been proposed. With further increasing the temperature up to 618 degrees C, part of the PbWO4 nanobelts reduced to tetragonal WO3 nanorods owing to the evaporation of Pb. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3601500]