Flexible One-Dimensional Nanostructures: A Review

This review discusses the recent reports on one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures with unusual flexibility. We discuss the importance that flexibility could have in future applications of nanowires and other nanostructures, and detail the two main approaches that have been followed to this day to synthesize highly flexible 1D nanostructures. One approach is based on making crystals in which one or two dimensions of the structure are comparable in size with the unit cell. Such thinness has been shown to provide unusual flexibility. The other approach conjoins hard nanostructures with flexible joints.