Germanium-catalyzed hierarchical Al2O3 and SiO 2 nanowire bunch arrays

Zhanjun Gu, Feng Liu, Jane Y. Howe, M. Parans Paranthaman, Zhengwei Pan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

27 Scopus citations

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 languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)347-354
Number of pages8
JournalNanoscale
Volume1
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Germanium-catalyzed hierarchical Al2O3 and SiO 2 nanowire bunch arrays'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this