1 research outputs found
Room Temperature in Situ Growth of B/BO<sub><i>x</i></sub> Nanowires and BO<sub><i>x</i></sub> Nanotubes
Despite
significant advances in the synthesis of nanostructures,
our understanding of the growth mechanisms of nanowires and nanotubes
grown from catalyst particles remains limited. In this study we demonstrate
a straightforward route to grow coaxial amorphous B/BO<sub><i>x</i></sub> nanowires and BO<sub><i>x</i></sub> nanotubes
using gold catalyst particles inside a transmission electron microscope
at room temperature without the need of any specialized or expensive
accessories. Exceedingly high growth rates (over 7 μm/min) are
found for the coaxial nanowires, and this is attributed to the highly
efficient diffusion of B species along the surface of a nanowire by
electrostatic repulsion. On the other hand the O species are shown
to be relevant to activate the gold catalysts, and this can occur
through volatile O species. The technique could be further developed
to study the growth of other nanostructures and holds promise for
the room temperature growth of nanostructures as a whole