Preparation and characterization of single crystalline In–Sn oxide nanowires

• Single-crystalline ITO nanowires have been synthesized by electrodeposition and an oxidization method.
• ITO nanowires have diameter of about 60 nm and length of 8–10 μm individually.
• ITO nanowires can be developed in gas sensor and solar cells.

Indium tin oxide (ITO; Indium oxide with tin doping) nanowires were first prepared via the electrochemical deposition and an oxidization method based on an AAO template. FE-SEM results show the synthesized ITO nanowires to have an approximate length of 8–10 μm with an aspect ratio close to 167. ITO nanowires with an In/Sn weight ratio of 8.8 (∼9:1) were observed from EDS. The crystal structure of ITO nanowires showed that all the peaks within the spectra can be indexed to In2O3 with a cubic structure. The ITO nanowire is single-crystalline determined from selected area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns. An optical energy gap (Eg) of the ITO nanowire is 3.8 eV.