Single Crystalline Nanowires of Lead Can Be Synthesized through Thermal Decomposition of Lead Acetate in Ethylene Glycol

Abstract

This paper describes a solution-phase route to the facile synthesis of lead nanowires with lateral dimensions as thin as 35 nm and lengths up to 250 μm. These lead nanowires were single crystalline in structure, and electron transport measurements on individual nanowires (using the four-probe method) indicate a phase transition to the superconducting state around 7.13 K, a temperature similar to the value (7.20 K) reported for bulk lead. Different from polycrystalline samples, no significant variation in the transition temperature was observed for nanowires with diameters down to 50 nm.