Thermal stability of {1Â 1Â 0} facet terminated gold nanobelts

► {1 1 0} faceted gold nanowire iso-oriented arrays were produced. ► Thermal stability of gold nanowires is studied using an FE-SEM with heating stage. ► Free standing gold nanowires are compared with those in substrate contact. ► The decay mechanism is a transformation through {1 1 1} facets to Rayleigh instabilities.