Luminescent silica nanotubes and -wires were fabricated by sol-gel coating of cellulose whisker templates. The cellulose templates were removed by calcination at 650 °C to generate silica nanotubes. At calcination temperatures of 900 °C the core region previously occupied by the cellulose whisker template was closed yielding silica nanowires. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed the formation of nanotubes and nanowires with diameters of 15 nm and lengths of 500 nm at both temperatures. Before and after calcination the nanotubes and -wires showed an intense blue photoluminescence (PL) excited by 270 nm photons which was dominated by two peaks at 450 nm (2.76 eV) and 470 nm (2.67 eV). Cathodoluminescence (CL) spectra were measured in TEM while the samples were irradiated with 150 keV electrons. The blue emission related to defects induced by electron irradiation was investigated in-situ as a function of irradiation dose. The as-prepared silica/cellulose composites and the silica nanotubes calcined at 650 °C showed a fast decay of the CL emission in contrast to the immense signal increase of the silica nanowires calcined at 900 °C . The observed irradiation induced changes in the CL spectra of the silica nanotubes and -wires will be discussed in terms of defect formation and transformation mechanisms.

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