Synthesis, Characterization And Properties Of Indium-filled MgO Nanotube

Since the world's smallest nanothermometer was reported in 2002, people paid more attention to the nanothermometer and its nanostructure which was metal-filled nanotubes, and did a lot of related work to improve the temperature range of the nanothermometer by changing the core and shell materials of the nanothermometer. In this paper, we focus on the synthesis, characterization and properties of Indium-filled MgO nanotube. Here we list our main research results as below:(1) Using In2O3 powder and Mg powder (1:3) as source materials, we synthesized Indium-filled MgO namotube with three typical nanostructures via one-step method. Furthermore we studied their morphology, structure and growth mechanism.(2) We studied the thermal properties of the sample, found that Indium-filled MgO nanotubes exhibited an interesting phenomenon that the In expanded first and then shrinked as the temperature raise from 20℃to 470℃, we considered that the shrinking may be due to the solution of some N2 gas in indium during the preparation.(3) The electrical properties of the sample was studied, and we found the resistance of the sample increase first and then decrease as the temperature raise during the heating course from room temperature to 300℃, and the highest resistance was at about 150℃. We considered that the sample may be made into a temperature switch circuit or device due to this property.(4) We measured the contact angle of the sample surface, found that the sample is hydrophilic, and the surface contact angle of the sample increased after heat treatment. We analyzed the reasons for the phenomenon.