title: Designing and building nanowires: directed nanocrystal self-assembly into radically branched and zigzag PbS nanowires.
abstract: Lead sulfide nanowires with controllable optoelectronic properties would be promising building blocks for various applications. Here, we report the hot colloidal synthesis of radically branched and zigzag nanowires through self-attachment of star-shaped and octahedral nanocrystals in the presence of multiple surfactants. We obtained high-quality single-crystal nanowires with uniform diameter along the entire length, and the size of the nanowire can be tuned by tailoring the reaction parameters. This slow oriented attachment provides a better understanding of the intricacies of this complex nanocrystal assembly process. Meanwhile, these self-assembled nanowire structures have appealing lateral conformations with narrow side arms or highly faceted edges, where strong quantum confinement can occur. Consequently, the single-crystal nanowire structures exhibit strong photoluminescence in the near-infrared region with a large blue-shift compared to the bulk material.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA.
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: L Felipe
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Gerlein
authors.forename: Sylvain G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Cloutier