Growth and transmission electron microscopy studies of nanomaterials

Abstract

The growth chemistry and atomic structure of inorganic nanostructural materials have attracted great attention due to their important applications in novel miniaturized electronic, optoelectronic, electrochemical devices and molecular bio-technology. This thesis is motivated by the challenge of synthesizing semiconductor nanomaterials which may have potential applications in future. BN nanocapsules, ZnS nanowires, SiC nanocones are successfully synthesized using vapor-liquid-solid method, while CuInS2 and CuInSe2 thin films are grown by vapor-solid method. Transmission Electron Microscope, together with other characterization tools, has been applied to study the internal microstructure of these materials. Some Other scientific issues which I have discussed in this thesis include the relationships between the size of nanomaterials and the catalysts, the influence of growth conditions on the morphology and structure of final products, the growth mechanism of these nanomaterials, and the mechanism of morphology transfer of these nanomaterials.