Selected-area electron diffraction (SAED), bright field (BF) transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and HRTEM were carried out to determine crystal structure and to examine microstructures of the grown InP NWs using a JEOL JEM2100F TEM (JEOL Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) operating at 200 kV. The incident electron beam was along the direction. Specimens

for HRTEM examinations were prepared by peeling off the InP NWs from the surface of the substrate, KU-57788 purchase ultrasonicating them into anhydrous ethanol for several seconds, and dispersing the finished solution onto a holey-carbon-film-coated copper grid. Results and discussion Figure 1a shows a low-magnification SEM image of InP NWs prepared by 0.5-nm-thick Au catalyst film. It is observed that different kinds of kinks exist in the grown InP NWs. Interestingly, in most cases the bending angles are close to approximately 110° as indicated by white arrows. Magnified SEM image (Figure 1b) exhibits a clear morphology of InP NWs. It is shown that despite there exists Selleck MAPK inhibitor some kinks, the overall morphology of grown InP NWs is relatively straight and smooth. As observed from TEM images, InP NWs with kinks can be clearly

seen and the diameter of InP NWs is uniform and ranges from 20 to 40 nm. In order to systematically understand the characteristics of the different kinks, initially, a comprehensive statistical analysis was carried out using typical BF TEM images (Figure 1c), which are mainly concentrated in the range of 20 to 30 nm. In this work, the bending angles of more than 180 kinks in different NWs were measured and the statistical VS-4718 molecular weight result is presented in Figure 1d. It is noted that the angles and frequency of kinks are found independent of the nanowire diameter and four dominant groups of kinks with the bending angles of approximately 70°, 90°, 110°, and 170° are clearly displayed, with the relative percentage of them observed being 17%, 11%, 35%, and 6%, respectively. Except the four dominant groups, the kinked InP NWs with other angles are scarce. Furthermore, the bending angles less than 30° are not observed. Figure 1 SEM images depict

the morphology of InP NWs along with the statistical Liothyronine Sodium graph of kinks. (a) Low-magnification SEM image of InP NWs prepared by 0.5-nm-thick Au film. Kinks with different angles are clearly observed. Approximately 110° kinks indicated by white arrows show frequently. (b) Magnified SEM image shows clear morphology of InP NWs. (c) Typical BF image for angle distribution statistic. (d) Kink angle statistics of grown InP NWs observed by TEM images. Four dominant groups of kinks with angles of approximately 70°, 90°, 110°, and 170° are clearly displayed. To shed light in exploring the formation mechanism of these kinks with different angles, HRTEM technique was exploited to examine the microstructures of these grown InP NWs.