Abstract

Aligned MoO₃ nanobelts and tree-like arrays have been synthesized onto silicon substrates by an ordinary gas cooker. The synthesis method is simple, rapid, low-cost, safe, and also suitable for large-scale fabrication. A possible growth mechanism of the nanobelts is presented based on the experimental observations. Via integrating nano-Al with the MoO₃ nanobelt arrays, metastable intermolecular composites (MICs) based on Al/MoO₃ nanobelt arrays are achieved. The Al/MoO₃ MIC arrays have high energy density and can combust continuously by themselves at small dimensions and low density, which makes the MIC arrays synthesized on the silicon substrate, have promising applications in nanoenergetics- on-a-chip based functional devices at the micro and nanoscale.

Keywords: Flame synthesis, growth mechanism, MoO₃ nanobelts and tree-like arrays, nanoenergetics-on-a-chip.

Graphical Abstract