Chemical Approaches for 1D Oxide Nanostructures

Abstract In the last three decades, there has been a shift towards shape-dependent strategies for producing one-dimensional oxide nanostructures that have outstanding properties as evidenced by abundant magnificent reviews. In particular, 1D oxide nanostructures serve as an intensely valuable class of nanomaterials due to their diverse morphologies. One-dimensional nanostructures are specifically nanomaterials with one dimension outside the nanometer range (from several hundreds of nanometers up to a few centimeters in length) and diameters of only a few nanometers (1–100 nm). Nanowires, nanotubes, nanoribbons, nanobelts, nanowhiskers, nanoneedles, nanocages, nanorings, nanocombs, etc. are a few nanometers in diameter and several micrometers in length. In addition, these anisotropic shapes determine the way in which the electron density can be polarized. In this chapter, we discuss 1D nanostructure synthesis techniques, specifically for TiO 2 and ZnO from chemical solutions. Chemical techniques, such as hydrothermal/solvothermal, sol–gel, surfactant-assisted, microwave-assisted, sonochemical, electrospinning, and high-temperature pyrolysis methods are diiscussed. In addition, growth mechanisms of 1D TiO 2 and ZnO nanostructures from chemical solutions are reviewed.