Zigzag-shaped nickel nanowires via organometallic template-free route

In this manuscript, the formation of nickel nanowires of 10–20 nm in diameter (average size: several tens to hundreds of μm long and 1.0–1.5 μm wide) at low temperature is found to be driven by dewetting of liquid organometallic precursors during spin-coating process and by self-assembly of Ni clusters. Elaboration of metallic thin films by low-temperature deposition technique makes the preparation process compatible with most of the substrates. The use of iron and cobalt precursor shows that the process could be extended to other metallic systems. In this work, AFM and SEM are used to follow the assembly of Ni clusters into straight or zigzag lines. The formation of zigzag structure is specific to the Ni precursor at appropriate preparation parameters. This template-free process allows a control of anisotropic structures with homogeneous sizes and angles on the standard Si/SiO₂ surface.