Nanowires hold significant promise as building blocks of future devices across multiple technology platforms, ranging from chemical/biological sensing to energy harvesting. Technologically important and scientifically interesting, nanowires have lengths in the range of nanometers to micrometers and diameters in the sub-500 nm range. Experimental researchers have devised ingenious ways to synthesize and characterize both ceramic and metallic nanowires, and have shown that the properties and structures of these small structures differ considerably from bulk metals and ceramics. Computational research on nanowires has focused on studies aimed at better understanding the unique structure and mechanical properties of surface structure-dominated materials.
A comprehensive special issue on nanowires is virtually impossible given the large number of researchers working in this exciting and rapidly developing field of study. Therefore, the purpose of this special issue is to provide a fundamental glimpse into nanowire research, spanning theoretical and experimental science and also considering metallic and ceramic nanowires. The diversity of topics allows the exploration of a range of interesting phenomena observed and predicted in nanowires of varying chemistry and structure. We also wished to construct a special issue containing both experimental and analytical studies since, at present, the bulk of research, reported in the literature, is exclusively experimental or computational. It is hoped that the research topics presented in this issue will help promote cross-fertilization of the experimental and computational disciplines as research into nanowires progresses.
The papers in this special issue contain experimental and computational findings that will have a lasting impact on nanoscience and nanotechnology. For example, the controlled synthesis of metallic (e.g. gold) and ceramic (e.g. ZnO and GaN) nanowires can be applied to applications such as targeted drug delivery, optics, piezoelectric sensing and actuation, among others. Computational contributions predict that nanowires will demonstrate unique deformation mechanisms, size dependence and interesting phase transformations, including shape-recovery behaviour. Other papers identify potential gaps and subjects for future research and discovery. Specifically, there is a significant gap between direct simulation of phenomena, as shown in this issue, and empirical validation of behaviour in the laboratory. This special issue is an impressive compilation of basic science on nanowires and demonstrates the progress and development in this field since the discovery of the carbon nanotube in the early 1990s.
Ken Gall and Christopher Muhlstein
Guest Editors