Thermal stability of IrO/sub 2/ nanowires

Abstract

The thermal stability of IrO/sub 2/ nanowires has been studied. First single crystal IrO/sub 2/ nanowires with the diameter at 10-30 nm and length at about 500 nm were synthesized using MOCVD system. Then the nanowires were annealed in oxygen and nitrogen ambient separately at different temperatures. It shows that under oxygen annealing the IrO/sub 2/ nanowires become unstable at around 800/spl deg/C. After 900/spl deg/C annealing, the IrO/sub 2/ nanowires melted and vaporized. On the other hand, under nitrogen annealing at 800/spl deg/C the IrO/sub 2/ nanowires were reduced to Ir, after further annealing in nitrogen at 900/spl deg/C, the IrO/sub 2/ nanowires were completely reduced to Ir and also the IrO/sub 2/ nanowires fragment into Ir particles.