The growth mechanism for silicon oxide nanowires synthesized from an Au nanoparticle/polyimide/Si thin film stack

J H Kim; H H An; H J Woo; C S Yoon

doi:10.1088/0957-4484/19/12/125604

The growth mechanism for silicon oxide nanowires synthesized from an Au nanoparticle/polyimide/Si thin film stack

Nanotechnology. 2008 Mar 26;19(12):125604. doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/19/12/125604. Epub 2008 Feb 21.

Authors

J H Kim¹, H H An, H J Woo, C S Yoon

Affiliation

¹ Division of Materials Science and Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, Korea.

PMID: 21817736
DOI: 10.1088/0957-4484/19/12/125604

Abstract

During pyrolysis of polyimide (PI) thin film, amorphous silicon oxide nanowires (SiO(x)NWs) were produced on a large scale through heat treatment of an Au nanoparticle/PI/Si thin film stack at 1000 °C. It was shown that carbonization of the PI film preceded the nucleation of the SiO(x)NWs. The formation of the SiO(x)NWs was sustained by the oxygen derived from carbonization of the polyimide thin film while Si was provided from the substrate. Au nanoparticles promoted the SiO(x)NW growth by inducing localized melting of the Si substrate and by catalyzing the nanowire growth.