Abstract
Germanium (Ge), a Group IV semiconductor, was recently used as an effective catalyst to grow individual, single-crystalline ZnO nanowires through a vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) process [Pan et al., Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2005, 44, 274-278]. Here, we show that Ge can also act as an efficient catalyst for the large-scale growth of highly aligned, closely-packed polycrystalline Al 2O3 and amorphous SiO2 nanowire bunch arrays. The Ge-catalyzed Al2O3 and SiO2 nanowire growth exhibits many interesting growth behaviors including (i) multiple nanowire growth catalyzed by one micrometer-size Ge particle, (ii) branching growth and (iii) batch-by-batch growth. These growth phenomena are distinct from the conventional Au-catalyzed nanowire growth but are analogous to the recently reported Ga-catalyzed SiO2 nanowire growth. It is anticipated that many other oxide nanowires and nanowire assemblies can be synthesized through the Ge-catalyzed VLS process. The Ge-catalyzed Al2O3 and SiO2 nanowires emit strong visible light under ultraviolet light excitation.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 347-354 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Nanoscale |
Volume | 1 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2009 |