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.