Silicon and Gold Nanorods

While spherical Si nanocrystals have been explored for couple of decades, other morphologies have been attracting a lot of interest.  Si nanorods (SiNRs) have the potential to exhibit different optoelectronic properties compared to their spatially isotropic counterparts, including polarized light emission and enhanced charge transport. Silicon (Si) nanocrystals have been focused recently for their tunable optical properties, which arise due to quantum confinement. Among the most attractive synthesis methods for Si nanocrystals is to use a nonthermal plasma reactor, which allows controllable nanocrystal physical and optoelectronic properties in an efficient gas-phase route.  Here in PNML at MSU we present a method to streamline SiNR growth even further by combining hot-wire gold nanoparticle synthesis with plasma-based nanorod growth for freestanding SiNRs produced entirely in the gas-phase.