Si nanotubes and nanospheres with two-dimensional polycrystalline walls.
We report on the characteristics of a new class of Si-based nanotubes and spherical nanoparticles synthesized by the dc-arc plasma method in a mixture of argon and hydrogen. These two nanostructures share common properties: they are hollow and possess very thin, highly polycrystalline and mainly oxidized walls. In particular, we get several hints indicating that their walls could constitute only one single Si oxidized layer. Moreover, we find that only the less oxidized nanotubes exhibit locally atomic ordered, snakeskin-like areas which possess a hexagonal arrangement which can be interpreted either as an sp(2) or sp(3) hybridized Si or Si-H layer. Their ability to not react with oxygen seems to suggest the presence of sp(2) configuration or the formation of silicon-hydrogen bonding.
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università Roma Tor Vergata and Unità CNISM, via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Roma, Italy. castrucci@roma2.infn.it
Paola
P
Castrucci
Marco
M
Diociaiuti
Chiti Manohar
CM
Tank
Stefano
S
Casciardi
Francesca
F
Tombolini
Manuela
M
Scarselli
Maurizio
M
De Crescenzi
Vikas Laxman
VL
Mathe
Sudha Vasant
SV
Bhoraskar