Growth of straight silicon nanowires on amorphous substrates with uniform diameter, length, orientation, and location using nanopatterned host-mediated catalyst.

We report a new approach, termed "growth by nanopatterned host-medicated catalyst" (NHC growth), to solve nonuniformities of Si nanowires (NWs) grown on amorphous substrates. Rather than pure metal catalyst, the NHC uses a mixture of metal catalyst with the material to be grown (i.e.

High-performance lithium battery anodes using silicon nanowires.

There is great interest in developing rechargeable lithium batteries with higher energy capacity and longer cycle life for applications in portable electronic devices, electric vehicles and implantable medical devices. Silicon is an attractive anode material for lithium batteries because it has a low discharge potential and the highest known theoretical charge capacity (4,200 mAh g(-1); ref. 2).

Synthesis and characterization of phase-change nanowires.

Phase-change memory materials have stimulated a great deal of interest although the size-dependent behaviors have not been well studied due to the lack of method for producing their nanoscale structures. We report the synthesis and characterization of GeTe and Sb(2)Te(3) phase-change nanowires via a vapor-liquid-solid growth mechanism. The as-grown GeTe nanowires have three different types of morphologies: single-crystalline straight and helical rhombohedral GeTe nanowires and amorphous curly GeO(2) nanowires.

Enhanced CO tolerance for hydrogen activation in Au-Pt dendritic heteroaggregate nanostructures.

Au-Pt heteroaggregate nanostructures were prepared by sequential reduction methods. The structures have approximately 11 nm Au cores with Pt "tendrils" attached to the Au surface. The heteroaggregates are active H2 oxidation catalysts and show high activity at 90 degrees C in the presence of 1000 ppm CO.