Rational design concept of single crystalline metal oxide nanowires

Abstract

  Single crystalline metal oxide nanowires have demonstrated a great promise for IoT sensors, biomedical and environment-analytical devices because of their thermal/chemical robustness in air and water conditions. This report introduces a rational concept for designing the single crystalline metal oxide nanowires. The anisotropic nanowire growth can be achieved by rigorously controlling a material supply flux or a precursor concentration within an appropriate range, so-called “flux/concentration window”. The flux/concentration window is determined by the competitive nucleation events at different crystal growth interfaces. Recent our study shows the critical importance of the flux/concentration window to control not only the nanowire structure, but also their composition, crystal phase and functional properties.