Electrochemical synthesis and applications of oriented and hierarchically quasi-1D semiconducting nanostructures

In the last decade, 1D semiconductor nanostructures attracted much attention due to their potential applications in electronics, optoelectronics, sensor, and biotechnology. Among various synthetic strategies, the electrochemical method is a relatively simple and effective way to prepare 1D semiconductor nanostructures. Moreover, electrochemical methods can afford precise processes for controlling the compositions and morphologies of the nanostructured materials. In this review, we present a systematic description of the electrochemical synthesis of oriented and hierarchical quasi-1D semiconducting nanostructures. The main contents containing: (1) electrodeposition of materials in hard porous membranes templates with 1D pore geometry or under assistance of the capping reagents for oriented nanowires/nanorods film; (2) multi-step template replication methods, two-step synthetic strategy and anodization methods for uniform nanotube arrays; (3) electrochemical synthetic strategies for complex hierarchical nanostructured films. Additionally, we give a brief introduction about the applications of these quasi-1D semiconducting nanostructures.