Template-Free Electrochemical Growth of Single-Crystalline Zinc Nanowires at an Anomalously Low Temperature

Zinc nanowires of serpentine geometry have been grown on conducting plastic and glass substrates in an aqueous electrolyte at an anomalously low temperature of 0 degrees C by a one-step, template-free electrodeposition technique. These nanowires are of several micrometers long and with a diameter of 20-200 nm. These nanowires are also single-crystalline and found to be coated with a 5 nm thick ZnO shell with an epitaxial relationship to the Zn core.