Basic cadmium salts as phase-directing agent for the phase and morphology control of metal hydroxychlorides

Basic cadmium salts (CdOHCl and Cd(OH)NO 3 ·H 2 O) were used as phase-directing agents to guide the phase development of various metal hydroxychlorides including Cu 2 (OH) 3 Cl, Co 2 (OH) 3 Cl, Zn 5 (OH) 8 Cl 2 (H 2 O), Sn 3 O(OH) 2 Cl 3 and PbOHCl. The simple synthesis procedure includes only one step: solid basic cadmium salt was suspended in aqueous or ethanolic solution of metal salt for 6 h in ambient environment. The separated products from the solution had various morphologies such as sphere, bundle, sheet, hollow sphere and cube. The phase direction behaviour of basic cadmium salts can be attributed to their high reactivity, and most importantly to the structure similarity between basic cadmium salts and metal hydroxychlorides.