Abstract
The central theme of this dissertation is mainly design and systematic exploration of advanced material performances including the following: (1) gold nanowire, (2) nickel silicide-titanium silicide (Ni2Si/TiSi2) core-shell nanowire, and (3) piezopotential nanowries. Basically, they possess two different kinds of properties, metallic and semiconducting properties, which can be applied in various applications. For metallic nanomaterials, we mainly focus on synthesis and characterization of the gold nanowires and Ni2Si/TiSi2 core-shell nanowires for applications including magnetic, electronic and field-emission properties. An innovative grow mechanism is discussed in detail based on the S-L-S process for both of metallic nanowires. Our gold nanowires exhibit outstanding properties with the lowest turn-on field of 3 V/μm and the maximum current density of 1.5 mA/cm2. Furthermore, Ni2Si/TiSi2 silicides nanowires have many interesting properties measured as well like high melting temperature, thermal stability and low resistivity. For piezopotential materials, we try to synthesize some wurtzite structure nanomaterials such as zinc oxide (ZnO) and gallium nitrite (GaN). The effect of piezopotential on the transport behavior of charge carriers is significant due to their multiple functionalities of piezoelectricity, semiconductor and photon excitation. Therefore, we also study for their various applications in energy science including self-powered LED devices, hybrid nanogenerators, and power generation from human daily activity. The results have shown the great potential of these nanomaterials in future applications. Efforts have been carried out to understand the underlying science and to enhance and glorify their possible engineering applications. The above outstanding results warrant several possible applications for (1) gold nanowires as the electron field emitters, (2) Ni2Si/TiSi2 core-shell nanowire as electronic interconnect or magneto-resistance devices, and (3) promising wurtzite structure ZnO and GaN nanowires for the energy harvester which coverts low frequency mechanical movements of human/animal into electricity in future microelectronics.