Large-scale synthesis of wide band gap semiconductor nanostructures by microwave method

Low-dimension semiconductor nanostructures were successfully synthesized by a fast, simple, and low-cost microwave method. By heating raw materials under microwave irradiation and controlled conditions, diverse nanostructures for semiconducting oxides and carbides were synthesized without extra metal catalysts. In this paper, flower-like and net structural oxide and carbide semiconductors in nanoscale have been studied in detail. Structural, morphological, and elemental analysis revealed that the as-synthesized nanostructures were highly pure and structurally uniform. The possible growth mechanisms of these nanostructures were preliminarily discussed. The temperature and the gas-phase supersaturation in their growing processes have important effects on their morphologies. The unique synthesis method may open a new way for the fabrication of self-assembled multidimensional structures, which are expected to find a wide range of important applications in nanodevices and nanocomposites.