Chromium inhibition and size-selected Au nanocluster catalysis for the solution growth of low-density ZnO nanowires.

The wet chemical synthesis of nanostructures has many crucial advantages over high-temperature methods, including simplicity, low-cost, and deposition on almost arbitrary substrates. Nevertheless, the density-controlled solution growth of nanowires still remains a challenge, especially at the low densities (e.g. 1 to 10 nanowires/100 μm(2)) required, as an example, for intracellular analyses. Here, we demonstrate the solution-growth of ZnO nanowires using a thin chromium film as a nucleation inhibitor and Au size-selected nanoclusters (SSNCs) as catalytic particles for which the density and, in contrast with previous reports, size can be accurately controlled. Our results also provide evide…