Selective synthesis and superconductivity of In-Sn intermetallic nanowires sheathed in carbon nanotubes

We demonstrate a simple and reproducible technique to synthesize crystalline and superconducting In-Sn intermetallic nanowires sheathed in carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The method is based on the catalytic reaction of C(2)H(2) over a mixture of both SnO(2) and In(2)O(3) particles. Importantly, tetragonal β-In(3)Sn and hexagonal γ-InSn(4) nanowires with diameters of less than 100 nm are selectively synthesized at different SnO(2) to In(2)O(3) weight ratios. CNTs may serve as cylindrical nanocontainers for continuous growth of liquid-phased In(1-x)Sn(x) nanowires during growth process as well as for their solidification into In-Sn intermetallic nanowires during the cooling process. Microscopic and spectroscopic analyses clearly reveal evidence of a core-shell structure of the CNT-sheathed In-Sn intermetallic nanowires. Magnetization measurements show that the superconducting In-Sn nanowires have a critical magnetic field higher than the value of their bulk intermetallic compounds. Our method can be adopted to the nanofabrication of analogous binary and ternary alloys.