Nanostructured materials have stimulated much research interest because of their novel mechanical and electrical properties due to their low dimensionality. SiNWs in particular show potential for many innovative applications and furthermore can serve as a high surface area material for either catalysis or sensing applications.

A variety of methods have been used for producing SiNWs, but mass-production simply, easily, and in a controlled fashion has been difficult to achieve, as has been the development of a thorough understanding of the growth mechanism.

We have been able to synthesize amorphous SiNWs on Au and Au-Pd (60:40) catalyzed silicon substrate via the SLS mechanism. Growth of the nanowires is maximized at a temperature of 900C. Future work will be aimed at developing coatings and coating methodologies of unique nanomaterials for both chemical and biological sensing applications.

Publications

Rezina Siddique, George Sirinakis, Michael. A. Carpenter,
Low Temperature Synthesis of Silicon Oxide Nanowires
Mat. Res. Soc. Proc., V879E, (Spring 2005). pdf