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Catalytic Joule heating synthesis of one-dimensional nanomaterials in seconds

Nature Synthesis volume 5, pages 367–376 (2026)Cite this article

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Abstract

Rapid Joule heating (RJH) has emerged as a transformative technique for ultrafast materials synthesis, attributed to extreme thermal conditions, fast reaction speed and high energy efficiency. Here, to improve the controllability and versatility of RJH, we introduce nanocatalysts and establish a catalytic RJH process that combines the precision of vapour–liquid–solid (VLS) growth processes with the ultrafast kinetics of Joule heating, enabling structurally controlled synthesis of one-dimensional (1D) nanomaterials within seconds. We verify the validity of VLS mechanism at temperatures beyond 2,500 °C under RJH, in which the far-from-equilibrium reaction conditions further enhance the growth and diameter control of 1D nanomaterials. Consequently, nanowires of refractory carbides, II–VI/III–V group semiconductors, high-entropy carbides, and multiwalled and single-walled carbon nanotubes are synthesized, showing the generality of the RJH-VLS strategy. With demonstrated scalability to the 10-g scale, low energy consumption on the order of tens of kilojoules per gram, and the ability to precisely control morphology through nanocatalysts, this catalytic RJH strategy shows great promise for the synthesis and production of 1D materials.

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Fig. 1: Rapid synthesis and characterizations of SiC nanowires.
Fig. 2: Evidence for the VLS growth mechanism under the far-from-equilibrium RJH conditions.
Fig. 3: Nanowires of B4C, ZnO and GaP synthesized by the RJH-VLS method.
Fig. 4: High-entropy nanowires synthesized by the RJH method.
Fig. 5: Application of the RJH method for synthesizing CNTs.
Fig. 6: Scaling-up of the rapid synthesis of SiC nanowires.

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All data supporting the conclusions of this study are available in the article and its Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge R. Wen from Saiyin Materials Co., Ltd. for debugging the RJH equipment. Y.L. acknowledges support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 22120102004, U23A2085 and U21A6004), Shenzhen KQTD Project (grant no. KQTD20180411143400981) and Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (grant no. BNLMS-CXTD-202001). This work was supported by the High-Performance Computing Platform of Peking University.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Jian Sheng, Yifan Xu.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Jian Sheng, Yifan Xu, Zhen Han, Sida Sun, Xinrui Zhang, Chi Xu, Runze Lai & Yan Li

  2. Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Yifan Xu, Zhen Han & Yan Li

  3. Institute of Molecular Science, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China

    Dan-Na Wu, Hai-Gang Lu & Si-Dian Li

  4. Shanxi-PKU Institute for Carbon-Based Thin Film Electronics, Taiyuan, China

    Yan Li

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Contributions

Y.L., J.S. and Y.X. designed the research. Y.L., J.S., Y.X. and H.-G.L. designed the RJH reactors. H.-G.L. and S.-D.L. designed the RJH control system. J.S. and Y.X. performed the synthesis and characterization of 1D nanomaterials. Z.H., X.Z. and R.L. performed the TEM characterizations. S.S. performed the molecular dynamics simulations. C.X. performed the GC-FID tests. J.S., Y.X. and D.-N.W. performed the amplified synthesis of SiC. All authors discussed the experiments and contributed to the data analysis. Y.L., J.S., Y.X. and S.S. contributed to the writing of the paper. Y.L., J.S. and Y.X. reviewed the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yan Li.

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Competing interests

Y.L., J.S., Y.X. and Z.H. are listed as inventors of a patent application filed by Peking University (China National Intellectual Property Administration application no. 202311843212.1). The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Synthesis thanks Feng Ru Fan, Il-Doo Kim and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary Handling Editor: Alexandra Groves, in collaboration with the Nature Synthesis team.

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Extended data

Extended Data Table 1 Summary of RJH parameters for different 1D nanomaterials
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Supplementary Notes 1–7, Figs. 1–42, Tables 1–4 and references.

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Sheng, J., Xu, Y., Han, Z. et al. Catalytic Joule heating synthesis of one-dimensional nanomaterials in seconds. Nat. Synth 5, 367–376 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-025-00933-1

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