Chemical Vapor Deposition Synthesis of Novel Indium Oxide Nanostructures in Strongly Reducing Growth Ambient

Abstract

The current study reports some interesting growth of novel In2O3 nanostructures using ambient-controlled chemical vapor deposition technique in the presence of a strongly reducing hydrazine ambient. The experiments are systematically carried out by keeping either of the carrier gas flow rate or the source temperature constant, and varying the other. For each of the depositions, the growth is studied at three different locations downstream. In this paper, we report the growth of some novel nanostructures including nanodonuts, nanomushrooms, standing nanorods and long nanowires using ambient controlled chemical vapor deposition technique. Further, the nanostructures are characterized through scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction. First, the growth of nanowires, octahedral and nanorods were verified to occur in oxidizing, inert and reducing ambient, respectively. However, a systematic variation of experimental parameters shows that different kinds of nanostructures can be obtained using highly reducing hydrazine ambient. Further, simultaneous growth of octahedral along with nanomushrooms and the hexagonal tip of the standing nanorods provides some insight into the growth mechanisms of these novel nanostructures. Possible growth mechanisms of the nanostructures are also discussed in detail.