Inside Front Cover: Green Synthesis and Property Characterization of Single-Crystalline Perovskite Fluoride Nanorods (Adv. Funct. Mater. 1/2008)

The synthesis of single-crystalline, cubic perovskite KMnF3 and NH4MnF3 nanorods, and their rare-earth-ion-doped analogues with reproducible shapes and sizes, has been realized using a modified template-directed approach, report Stanislaus Wong and co-workers on p. 103. The properties of the nanorods and their as-doped counterparts suggest their practical incorporation into functional nanometer-scale devices with applications in a number of fields. The cover shows the crystal structure of perovskite fluorides overlaid on a SEM image of as-prepared KMnF3 nanorods with diameters measuring around 50 nm. The generalized green synthesis of single-crystalline KMnF3 and NH4MnF3 nanorods as well as of their rare-earth ion doped analogues, possessing reproducible shape and controllable size, has been achieved using a modified template-directed approach under ambient room-temperature conditions, with simple inorganic salts as functional precursors. Extensive characterization of the resulting nanorods has been performed using diffraction, electron microscopy, optical spectroscopy, as well as magnetic techniques. We have studied the antiferromagnetism of as-prepared ternary metal fluoride nanorods as well as the luminescence of their as-doped counterparts. Our collective data suggest the possibility of the incorporation of these high-quality, chemically pure materials into functional nanoscale devices with various potential applications that exploit the interesting optomagnetic properties of these systems.