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The anisotropic growth of nanowires is frequently accomplished using nanoparticle catalysts and gas-phase precursors. One of the most common methods is vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth, wherein gaseous precursors of the desired nanowire material, such as SiCl4 (215120) for silicon, dissolve into a liquid-metal catalyst.

Several methods are used to fabricate nanostructures using the top-down approach such as photolithography, scanning lithography, laser machining, soft lithography, nanocontact printing, nanosphere lithography, colloidal lithography, scanning probe lithography, ion implantation, diffusion, deposition.Dec 23, 2017

Physicist Richard Feynman, the father of nanotechnology. Nanoscience and nanotechnology are the study and application of extremely small things and can be used across all the other science fields, such as chemistry, biology, physics, materials science, and engineering.

• Broadly speaking, synthesis techniques can be divided into two categories: top-down fabrication and bottom-up synthesis. Conventional top-down nanowire fabrication is a subtractive technique, like carving a statue from a block of marble, using chemicals rather than chisels to achieve nanoscale control.

• Bottom-up synthesis provides the opportunity for explicit control of nanowire composition during growth, enabling the production of complex superlattice structures. This compositional control can be used to encode novel electronic properties such as quantum well photodiodes, as well as provide a template for subsequent processing.

• A common technique for creating a nanowire is vapor-liquid-solid method (VLS), which was first reported by Wagner and Ellis in 1964 for silicon whiskers with diameters ranging from 100s of nm to 100s of µm.

• This process can produce high-quality crystalline nanowires of many semiconductor materials, for example, VLS–grown single crystalline silicon nanowires (SiNWs) with smooth surfaces could have excellent properties, such as ultra-large elasticity. This method uses a source material from either laser ablated particles or a feed gas such as silane .

In one technique, the polyol synthesis, ethylene glycol is both solvent and reducing agent. This technique is particularly versatile at producing nanowires of gold, lead, platinum, and silver. The supercritical fluid-liquid-solid growth method can be used to synthesize semiconductor nanowires, e.g., Si and Ge.

Recently, photocatalytic applications of ZnO nanowires are of increased interest in environmental protection applications. This paper presents a review of the current research of ZnO nanowires (or nanorods) with special focus on photocatalysis.

There are many applications where nanowires may become important in electronic, opto-electronic and nanoelectromechanical devices, as additives in advanced composites, for metallic interconnects in nanoscale quantum devices, as field-emitters and as leads for biomolecular nanosensors.

This process can produce high-quality crystalline nanowires of many semiconductor materials, for example, VLS–grown single crystalline silicon nanowires (SiNWs) with smooth surfaces could have excellent properties, such as ultra-large elasticity. This method uses a source material from either laser ablated particles or a feed gas such as silane .