Gradient nanowires and nanotubes

Different routes to prepare gradient nanowire and nanotubes are presented including the use of polymeric and metal nanoparticles. In the case of electrospinning, latex particles have been added to electrospinning solution. The properties of the fibres have been studied theoretically and experimentally. In the case of face-to-face-wetting of porous templates, solution as well as melt wetting for different polymeric composition from both sides of the template is carried out. It turned out that solution wetting leads to an intermixing of the compounds whereas as melt wetting leads to sharp compositional interfaces. The method has been extended to include plasmonic and magnetic nanoparticles for nanophotonic applications. [GRAPHICS] (C) 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim