A family of aligned C-curved nanoarches

One-dimensional (1-D) nanomaterials are basic building blocks for the construction of nanoscale devices. However, the fabrication and alignment of 1-D nanomaterials with specific geometry and composition on a given substrate is a significant challenge. Herein we show a successful example of fabricating a family of aligned 1-D C-curved nanoarches of different compositions on an extended Si surface by a simple and scalable method. The nanoarches are made up of either single-crystalline Sn nanorods encapsulated in carbon nanotubes (CNTs), SnO(2) nanotubes, or CNTs. The aligned 1-D C-curved nanoarches of single-crystalline Sn nanorods in CNTs are prepared first by a facile in situ reduction of SnO(2) nanoparticles under standard chemical vapor deposition conditions. Nanoarches of CNTs and SnO(2) nanotubes were then derived from the Sn@CNT nanoarches by acid etching and by calcination in air, respectively.