Efficient synthesis and growth mechanisms of CuO nanowires via self-resistive heating

In this study, we present a fast and facile self-resistive heating method to fabricate copper oxide (CuO) nanowires using copper (Cu) substrates. The effect of growth temperature and time were thoroughly investigated through both experiment and simulations. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy confirmed the successful formation of highly crystalline CuO phase. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images demonstrated that the nanowires were uniform in size and at high density, indicating an efficient synthesis process. Additional analyses were conducted to further elucidate a thermodynamic mechanism of the growth of CuO nanowires. Our broad experimental and simulation data on synthesis parameters provides a detailed view on the growth of the nanowires and explains the efficient growth of aligned CuO nanowires synthesized by resistive heating method.