Room temperature in situ growth of B/BOx nanowires and BOx nanotubes

Despite significant advances in the synthesis of nanostructures, our understanding of the growth mechanisms of nanowires and nanotubes grown from catalyst particles remains limited. In this study we demonstrate a straightforward route to grow coaxial amorphous B/BOx nanowires and BOx nanotubes using gold catalyst particles inside a transmission electron microscope at room temperature without the need of any specialized or expensive accessories. Exceedingly high growth rates (over 7 μm/min) are found for the coaxial nanowires, and this is attributed to the highly efficient diffusion of B species along the surface of a nanowire by electrostatic repulsion. On the other hand the O species are shown to be relevant to activate the gold catalysts, and this can occur through volatile O species. The technique could be further developed to study the growth of other nanostructures and holds promise for the room temperature growth of nanostructures as a whole.