Chemical synthesis of 1-dimensional nanostructured semiconductor materials

Abstract

One dimensional (1-D) nanostructrures have been extensively studied as they can potentially play important roles as both interconnects and functional units in miniaturized electronic, optoelectronic, electrochemical devices. Nanowires, nanorods, nanobelts and nanotubes constitute the important class of 1-D nanostructures. The growth of 1-D nanostructures using vapor phase method is restricted by the difficulty of scaling up, the high cost of fabrication, as well as the presence of metallic contamination from the use of catalysts. Catalyst-free, wet chemical methods provide milder experimental conditions and the potential for scaling up at low cost, therefore these methods are attractive alternatives to the vapor phase methods. In this thesis, 1-D semiconductor nanostructures such as ZnO nanorods and Bi2S3 nanowires were synthesized using hydrothermal and solvothermal synthesis.