Carboxymethyl cellulose-templated synthesis of hierarchically structured metal oxides

Abstract

The synthesis of hierarchically structured metal oxides has been intensively pursued over many years for diverse industrial applications. Here, we report a simple but green approach for the synthesis of metal oxide fibers using carboxymethyl cellulose fibers (CMC). We synthesized 1D hierarchical metal oxides using CMC fibers as a sacrificial template. The electrostatic interaction between metal ions and carboxyl groups in CMC induced the formation of hierarchical structures of binary (e.g., CeO2, ZnO) and tertiary (e.g., CaMn2O4) metal oxide fibers.