Raspite PbWO₄ nanobelts: synthesis and properties

Raspite PbWO₄, which is rare in nature, poses a great challenge to laboratory preparation and only limited optical and spectroscopic investigations have been conducted on raspite PbWO₄ crystals from nature. In this article, we report that raspite PbWO₄ nanobelts can be obtained by a facile composite-salt-mediated synthesis method without using any surface-capping agent. The nanobelts are well crystallized with lengths up to hundreds of microns. The synthesis method is simple and cost effective. Our investigation demonstrates that the raspite PbWO₄ nanobelts possess excellent blue–green luminescent property at low temperature and highly sensitive photocurrent response to light switches at room temperature. The growth mechanism of the raspite PbWO₄ nanobelts, the structure characteristic and the luminescent mechanism are discussed in detail.