Novel Aspects of the Purpose-Built Materials Strategy: Evidence of Topographic Template Effect and Oriented Attachment Growth Mechanism

Abstract

We report two novel aspects relating to the growth of oriented 3D arrays of SnO2 nanorods, based on the "purpose-built materials" (PBM) strategy. Under controlled conditions, the substrate acted as a topographic template and the growth direction of the 3D arrays of SnO2 nanorods was unrelated to the crystallographic characteristic of the substrate. A growth process based on the oriented attachment mechanism was proposed to explain this behavior, and this findings, reported here for SnO2, can be extended to include other metal oxides.