Synthesis of aluminum nitride nanostructures via chemical vapor deposition method with nickel as catalyst

The authors successfully synthesized aluminum nitride (AlN) nanowires by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using aluminum (Al) powder and ammonia (NH3) as starting materials with nickel (Ni) as catalyst. The morphologies, the composition and structure information of samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopies (SEM), transmission electron microscopies (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Nanostructures with manifold morphologies were obtained by tuning the growth temperature and the growth time. The AlN nanowires are proved to have the wurtzite structure as demonstrated by XRD. The growth mechanism of AlN nanowires assisted with Ni catalyst is proposed to explain the nucleation and growth of nanowires.