Contents



Preface

Quasi-one-dimensional nanoscale materials such as nanowires have been a research focus in the fields of material sciences and engineering in the last few decades. A series of books emphasizing the research areas of nanowires have been published by several scientific publishers. This book provides a review of the recent progress of nanowires and their wide range of applications, as well as the associated advance-

Low-dimensional nanoscale materials exhibit promising applications in today's science and technology, due to their reduction in size, large surface-to-volume ratio, and novel properties resulting from quantum confinement effects. The significantly larger surface-to-volume ratio in nanostructures, compared with their bulk counterparts, leads to high sensitivity to surface effects and enables a new generation of technologies in research fields. Compared to other low-dimensional structures, such as zero-dimensional quantum dots (or nanoclusters) and two-dimensional nanosheets, one-dimensional nanowires demonstrate unique geometrical advantages that expedite the application of nanowires as bases of electronic devices, such as channels and interconnects. In such applications, the reduction in size of nanowires enables a faster speed and a greater power density, in addition to a reduced device form factor. Numerous conventional techniques established in traditional bulk devices are readily applicable to nanowire devices, which is expected to boost

This book contains ten chapters divided into three sections: Oxide Nanowires,

Section 1 examines recent progress in metal oxide nanowires, which include novel transition metal oxide nanowire field-effect transistors for biosensing, nanowires as building blocks for optoelectronic devices, and an advanced technique of glancing angle deposition for nanowire synthesis and their applications. Transition metal oxides, such as ZnO, CuO, TiO2, SnO2, and WO3, possess various advanced properties, for instance, resilient catalyst properties and large magnetoresistance coefficients. These exceptional properties are fundamentally correlated to the unfilled d-electrons in the transition metals. Transition metal oxide nanowires, combined with their unique size, geometrical effects, and stoichiometry engineering, are expected to reveal novel properties/applications and to play an important role in many different fields of science and technology. Chapter 1 provides a review of ZnO nanowire field-effect transistors and biosensors, emphasizing the different ways to improve the properties and performance of doped ZnO as a channel material. It suggests that top-down fabrication processes are preferred over bottom-up ones due to the former's enhanced flexibility of geometrical dimension control and capability of mass production. Chapter 2 focuses on two types of metal oxide nanowire arrays: the n-type eco-friendly and versatile ZnO and p-type highly stable CuO, using two straightforward and cost-effective preparation wet and dry methods of chemical synthesis in aqueous solution and thermal oxidation in air, respectively. Electronic devices based on single metal oxide nanowires were developed and analyzed in

ments in material synthesis and characterization.

extensive applications of nanowires.

Group III–V Compounds, and Other Nanowires.
