Template-Grown Metal Nanowires

Abstract

The growth of metal nanowires using membranes as hard templates is reviewed. The method provides access to arrays of single-crystal metal nanowires and to quasi-one-dimensional metal nanostructures with controlled compositional variation along their length. Recent applications of these kinds of nanowires to problems in superconductivity, optical spectroscopy and sensing, and catalytic conversion of chemical to mechanical energy are reviewed.