Possible routes for the synthesis of nanowires of intermetallic compounds: The case of CeIn₃

In this work, we investigated the role of different parameters in the synthesis of intermetallic nanowires of CeIn3 by the metallic-flux nanonucleation (MFNN) method such as template pore diameter, crystallization temperature, heat treatment temperature, and synthesis time. Depending on the growing parameters, we obtained CeIn3 nanowires (d ∼350 nm) or CeAlO3 nanotubes. For the nanowires, we observed a suppression of the CeIn3 antiferromagnetic transition from the bulk TN ∼10 K to the nanowire system TN ∼3 K, which may be associated with the dimensionality affecting the interplay between magnetic exchange interactions, crystalline electrical field, and Kondo effects. We assume that the CeAlO3 nanotubes may result from a reaction with the alumina template and consequent rare-earth oxidation. Our work shows that even it is a great challenge to find the correct growth path of a particular intermetallic compound, the MFNN method can be a promising route to obtain rare-earth based nanowires.