Controlled formation of Ni(DMG)2 microrods/tubes by manipulating the kinetics of chemical reactions and their application in naked-eye sensors.

We have demonstrated controlled preparation of Ni(DMG)2 microrods/tubes via chemical reaction method. By manipulating the reaction kinetics via the concentration of reactants, shapes of the resulting microstructures can be easily tuned from microrods to microtubes. Size of the resulting products can also be controlled through changing the reaction temperatures. It was proposed that under high reactants' concentrations, molecules will prefer to grow at corners or edges of nuclei with high free energies, to reduce the total energy in the system, which would lead to partial or complete hollow interiors and eventually resulted in mircotubes. The fact that DMG show high selectivity with Ni2+ and accompanied with obvious color change enable us to fabricate test strip for naked-eye detection of Ni2+. Benefit from the large surface areas of DMG nanoparticles on the test strip, the detection limit is improved by two orders over that of conventional solution method. This strategy is sensitive, simple and easy to handle, thus expected to possess potentials for the practical Ni2+ detection applications.