Ordered nanostructures by site-specific heterogeneous nucleation

Abstract

Highly site-specific heterogeneous nucleation from the vapour phase has been exploited to produce metallic nanostructures on reconstructed ceramic surfaces. The site-specificity arises from the fact that nucleation takes place under highly undersaturated conditions and hence occurs only on specific favourable sites. This approach has been used to produce ordered arrays of nanoparticles, nanorods and nanowires of different metals. The experimental conditions needed to produce different nanostructures are elucidated.

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge funding through the DST-NSF Indo–US programme (NSF-OISE-0352776) that enabled the collaboration. Funding through CSIR and DST Nanotechnology Initiative (II Phase), Government of India (NR) and DOE (CBC) is acknowledged. The authors also thank Dr Vijay Shenoy for very useful discussions.