In situ synthesis of horizontally aligned metal-boron alloy nanotubes on a silicon substrate with liquid crystal template.

In this paper, an interesting strategy has been described for the direct synthesis of parallel aligned metal-boron alloy nanotubes on silicon substrates, involving the use of lyotropic liquid crystal of non-ionic-anionic mixed surfactants. In particular, super-long, up to the scale of millimetres, nanotubes with well-controlled inner and outer diameters can be obtained. The current lyotropic liquid crystal template method could be used as an effective strategy for the in situ synthesis of aligned one-dimensional nanostructures with the wet chemical method. The results further prove the rolling-up mechanism for the formation of noncrystal metal-boron alloy nanotubes with a layered lyotropic liquid crystal precursor.