CHEMICAL ROUTES TO NANOCRYSTALS, NANOWIRES AND NANOTUBES

Soft chemical routes are employed effectively for the synthesis of nanocrystals of semiconductor materials. Several methods have been developed for the synthesis of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and specially noteworthy are the precursor route and nebulized spray pyrolysis for the synthesis of MWNTs and junction nanotubes. Nanotubes of inorganic layered materials are obtained by ingenious chemical methods. Nanowires of inorganic materials can be synthesized not only by high-temperature methods such as the carbon-assisted route but also by soft chemical routes.