Bamboo-structured boron nitride （BN） nanotubes with thorn-like morphology were synthe-sized by thermal chemical reaction using amorphous boron powders and NiO nanoparticles as precursors under the flow of NH3 at 1100 oC. The structural and morphological charac-teristics of BN nanotubes were investigated by X-ray diraction and transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that the thorn-like nanostructures attaching to the stems of bamboo-structured BN nanotubes were the hexagonal BN nano akes. Based on the diffu-sion of solid B and vapor B2O2, a possible growth mechanism of these novel thorn-like BN nanotubes was primarily proposed.
Nb doped multiferroic BiFe1-xNbxO3 （0 〈x 〈0.05） polycrystalline powders have been syn-thesized by using a sol-gel method. The effect of Nb dopant on the structural, magnetic and optical properties is investigated. According to the X-ray di raction data and the result of Rietveld re nement, all the samples maintain the R3c phase, while the lattice parameters a, c, the cell volume V and the Fe-O-Fe bond angle change. The remnant magnetization enhances by appropriate Nb doping due to the decreasing of the grain size. Meanwhile, Nb dopant leads to the narrowing of the band gap of BiFe1-xNbxO3 samples.
