1D oxide nanostructures from chemical solutions

Nanotechnology has motivated a tremendous effort in the synthesis approaches to grow free standing or hierarchical nanomaterials such as nanowires and nanorods. Bottom-up approaches based on chemistry are an important approach to produce nanomaterials, and here the concepts of growing oxide 1D nanostructures from chemical solutions are reviewed. The thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of the nucleation and growth of oxide compounds in solutions are presented with emphasis on hydrothermal and molten salt synthesis. The importance of solubility of precursors, the precursor chemistry, role of organic additives as well as the chemical complexity and dimensionality and symmetry of the crystal structure of the compound grown are highlighted.