Synthesis of Semiconducting nanowires

12 April 2007

The lab studies on various one-dimensional nanostructure materials has been carried out and it have been established that these materials can be used for various applications. However the synthesis of such one dimensional material is highly critical, as the synthesis of such material mainly depends on growth techniques. A well-known procedure to synthesize nanowire or nanorod was proposed by Wagner and Eillis in 1960s and it is known as VLS (vapor-liquid-solid) process.

In VLS process, a gaseous target source is diffused into molten alloy so that nanowire nucleate and grow from droplet. During the synthesis, liquid and alloy solid interface promote the anisotropic growth. So far a variety of nanowires of semiconductors such as Si, Ge, Se and metal oxide semiconductors have already been prepared. The other important method of synthesis of nanowire is template-based technique. The technique uses a process membrane for growing the various nanostructures.

The next and most important synthesis method is known as direct electrochemical deposition. In this method template- assisted growth of nanowires is achieved by metal coating on one face of the membrane so that the face can be used as an electrode for electroplating. In the recent past the template-assisted electrochemical techniques has become more efficient to produce variety of nanowires such as metal nanowires, conducting copolymer oxide nanowires and semiconductor nanowires. The technique has many advantages including precise process control.

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