Nanodot to Nanowire: A strain-driven shape transition in self-organized endotaxial CoSi2 on Si (100)

We report a phenomenon of strain-driven shape transition in the growth of nanoscale self-organized endotaxial CoSi2 islands on Si (100) substrates. Small square shaped islands as small as 15\times15 nm2 have been observed. Islands grow in the square shape following the four fold symmetry of the Si (100) substrate, up to a critical size of 67 \times 67 nm2. A shape transition takes place at this critical size. Larger islands adopt a rectangular shape with ever increasing length and the width decreasing to an asymptotic value of ~25 nm. This produces long wires of nearly constant width.We have observed nanowire islands with aspect ratios as large as ~ 20:1. The long nanowire heterostructures grow partly above (~ 3 nm) the surface, but mostly into (~17 nm) the Si substrate. These self-organized nanostructures behave as nanoscale Schottky diodes. They may be useful in Si-nanofabrication and find potential application in constructing nano devices.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Graphene-induced Pd nanodendrites: A high performance hybrid nanoelectrocatalyst

A facile and green approach has been developed for the in situ synthesis of hybrid nanomaterials based on dendrite-shaped Pd nanostructures supported on graphene (RG). The as-synthesized hybrid nanomaterials (RG-PdnDs) have been thoroughly characterized by high resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and electrochemical techniques. The mechanism of formation of such dendrite-shaped Pd nanostructures on the graphene support has been elucidated using TEM measurements. The RG induces the formation of, and plays a decisive role in shaping, the dendrite morphology of Pd nanostructures on its surface. Cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry techniques have been employed to evaluate the electrochemical performance of RG-PdnDs towards oxidation of methanol. The electrochemical (EC) activities of RG-PdnDs are compared with graphene-supported spherical-shaped Pd nanostructures, Pd nanodendrites alone and a commercial available Pd/C counterpart. The combined effect of the graphene support and the dendrite morphology of RG-PdnDs triggers the high electrocatalytic activity and results in robust tolerance to CO poisonin