In this work, we report a new, general synthetic approach that uses heat driven benzoin radicals to grow ultrathin copper nanowires with tunable diameters. This is the first time carbon organic radicals have been used as a reducing agent in metal nanowire synthesis. In-situ temperature dependent electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopic studies show that the active reducing agent is t...

Ge nanowire electrodes fabricated by using vapor-liquid-solid growth on metallic current collector substrates were found to have good performance during cycling with Li. An initial discharge capacity of 1141 mA.h/g was found to be stable over 20 cycles at the C/20 rate. High power rates were also observed up to 2C with Coulombic efficiency > 99%. Structural characterization revealed that the Ge...

Surface plasmons, which exist along the interface of a metal and a dielectric, have been proposed as an efficient alternative method for light trapping in solar cells during the past ten years. With unique properties such as superior light scattering, optical trapping, guide mode coupling, near field concentration, and hot-electron generation, metallic nanoparticles or nanostructures can be tai...

Using a first-principles, local-density-functional approach, we report the bond length optimization of endohedral linear carbon chains. In these calculations, all-carbon nanowire structures were constructed by inserting cumulenic linear carbon chains inside the semiconducting (7,3) and metallic (7,4) single-wall carbon nanotubes with radii of about 0.35 nm. Our calculations show that the total ...

While bulk bismuth (Bi) is a semimetal, we have found clear evidence of superconductivity in 72 nm diameter crystalline Bi nanowire below 1.3 K. In a parallel magnetic field (H), the residual resistance of the nanowire below T(c) displays periodic oscillations with H, and the period corresponds to a superconducting flux quantum. This result indicates that the superconductivity originates from t...

In recent photovoltaic research, nanomaterials have offered two new approaches for trapping light within solar cells to increase their absorption: nanostructuring the absorbing semiconductor and using metallic nanostructures to couple light into the absorbing layer. This work combines these two approaches by decorating a single-nanowire silicon solar cell with an octahedral silver nanocrystal. ...

We present a time-saving simulator within the framework of the density functional theory to calculate the transport properties of electrons through nanostructures suspended between semi-infinite electrodes. By introducing the Fourier transform and preconditioning conjugate-gradient algorithms into the simulator, a highly efficient performance can be achieved in determining scattering wave funct...

One-dimensional magnetic nanowires have been introduced into polydimethylsiloxane PDMS to form polymer based nanocomposites. In contrast to the conventional nanofillers such as carbon nanotubes, carbon nanofibers, nanoparticles, and layer-structured materials, these well-defined anisotropic metallic nanowires are highly conductive and have much weaker van der Waals interactions. Moreover, compo...

While bulk palladium is non-magnetic, several recent studies have shown that magnetism can occur in hcp Pd films, fcc twinned Pd nanoparticles, and Pd atomic strands. These studies show that small changes in Pd atomic configurations can induce magnetic properties. This raises the question of whether nanoscale Pd structures in general are magnetic. In this work, we examine coaxial palladium nano...