Fabrication of silicon oxide nanowires embedded with Au nanoparticle or Au nanowire: its use as template to hollow silica nanotube.

Silicon oxide nanowires which contains Au nanoparticles or an Au nanowire were fabricated by thermal evaporation chemical vapor deposition method using Au as catalyst. Silicon oxide wafers were used as the collector. The diameters of silicon oxide nanowires range from 20 to 150 nm. The larger the diameter of Si nanowire is, the larger the diameter of embedded Au nanoparticles. The separation between Au nanoparticles increases with the diameter. Different forms of silicon oxide nanowires were observed at different growth temperature: silicon oxide nanowires embedded with Au-containing nanoparticles at 1250 degrees C and Au/silicon oxide coaxial nanocable at 1425 degrees C. Using KCN solution, the nanoparticles or the nanocable inside silicon oxide nanowires were extracted, leaving hollow silicon oxide nanotubes.