Monoclinic gallium oxide (β-Ga2O3) nanowires were synthesized by heat treating a composite material of GaAs and pre-evaporated Au at 1240 °C in dry oxygen atmosphere. The catalytic Au metal generated liquid nanoclusters that serve as reactive sites confining and directing the growth of β-Ga2O3 nanowires during the vapor-liquid-solid growth process. The β-Ga2O3 nanowires have diameters ranging from 20 to 50 nm and lengths of several micrometers. Photoluminescence measurement under excitation at 250 nm shows that the bulk β-Ga2O3 nanowires have a stable blue emission at 475 nm and an ultraviolet emission at 330 nm, which may be related to the defects such as the oxygen vacancy and the gallium–oxygen vacancy pair.

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We have successfully fabricated ordered, well-crystallized Bi2S3 nanowire arrays embedded in the nanochannels of porous anodic aluminium oxide templates by direct current electrodeposition from a dimethylsulfoxide solution containing BiCl3 and elemental sulfur. X-ray diffraction and selected area electron diffraction investigations demonstrate that the Bi2S3 nanowires have an orthorhombic uniform structure. Electromicroscopy results show that the nanowires are quite ordered with diameters of about 40 nm and lengths up to 5 µm. X-ray energy dispersion analysis indicates that the atomic composition of Bi and S is very close to a 2 : 3 stoichiometry. The optical properties of these nanowires were characterized by optical absorption techniques. These studies reveal that the annealed Bi2S3 nanowires have an optical band edge (direct) of about 1.56 eV.

Mn-doped ZnS nanobelts have been prepared through a thermal evaporation method starting with a mixture of acetylacetonates and H2S at 900 °C. The nanobelts had a uniform single-crystal hexagonal wurtzite structure and grew along [001] direction. Undoped ZnS nanobelts and ZnMnS nanobelts with 1%, 3%, and 5% Mn so obtained have been characterized by x-ray diffraction, energy dispersive x-ray analysis, and photoluminescence (PL) spectra. PL measurements showed that the fluorescence efficiencies increased and the glow peaks shifted to longer wavelengths as the Mn-doped ratios increased, and the doping was found responsible for the changes in the defect-related emission of the ZnS nanobelts.

Large-scale single-crystalline CdO nanowires have been successfully fabricated from the electrochemical deposition mixture film of Cd and Te at 450°C, and characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD) powder, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). SEM and TEM images show that these nanowires are uniform with diameters of about 40–60 nm, length up to several tens micrometres. XRD and selected area electron diffraction analyses altogether indicate that these CdO nanowires crystallize in a NaCl cubic structure. The growth mechanism of these nanowires is also proposed as vapour–liquid–solid mechanism, in which Te serves as a liquid-forming agent.

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