TiO<sub>2</sub> Nanowire Growth Driven by Phosphorus-Doped Nanocatalysis Myung Hwa Kim Jeong Min Baik Jinping Zhang Christopher Larson Youli Li Galen D. Stucky Martin Moskovits Alec M. Wodtke 10.1021/jp1007335.s001 https://acs.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/TiO_sub_2_sub_Nanowire_Growth_Driven_by_Phosphorus_Doped_Nanocatalysis/2758126 Ni-catalyzed single-crystal TiO<sub>2</sub> nanowire growth was observed to occur well below the bulk Ni melting point when a small amount of P was present. TEM, SAED, EDXS, and EELS analyses as well as consideration of the Ni/P phase diagram point to a previously unreported mechanism of nanowire growth catalyzed by a liquid Ni/P eutectic shell surrounding a solid Ni core. High-resolution elemental analysis supports the conclusion that the active catalyst is the outer liquid Ni/P layer with P present at a 3−8% level surrounding a solid Ni core. Growth proceeds by precursor adsorption onto the liquid layer followed by diffusion to the growing surface of the nanowire. This catalyst system produces rutile TiO<sub>2</sub> nanowires efficiently. We believe that the technique is generalizable to other metal/dopant systems which could lead to the synthesis of other hard-to-synthesize nanowires. 2010-06-24 00:00:00 TiO 2 Nanowire Growth rutile TiO 2 nanowires TEM SAED EELS Ni core EDXS