Patent ID: 8591990
Filing Date: 2013-11-26
Classification: B82Y,C04B,C30B

Abstract:
1. A method of forming an arrangement of outwardly protruding nanowires, which include titanium silicide or tungsten silicide, on the exterior surfaces of electrically conductive microfibers, the method comprising: depositing a thin-film layer of titanium or tungsten to a thickness of about 500 nm to about 2 μm onto exterior surfaces electrically conductive microfibers; depositing a thin-film layer of gold to a thickness of about 1 nm to about 10 nm onto the thin-film layers of titanium or tungsten previously deposited onto the exterior surfaces of the electrically conductive microfibers; and exposing the electrically conductive microfibers with their overlying thin-film layers of titanium or Tungsten and gold to silicon vapors in an inert environment that is maintained at atmospheric pressure or below and a temperature that ranges from about 600° C. to about 900° C. to catalytically grow an arrangement of many outwardly protruding nanowires along the length and circumference of the exterior surfaces of the electrically conductive microfibers where the thin-film layer of titanium or tungsten and the thin-film layer of gold have been deposited, each of the nanowires being defined by an elongated, centralized nanocore that terminates in a distally spaced gold particle and an amorphous nanoshell that encases the nanocore and the gold particle, the nanocore being composed of titanium silicide, if titanium is deposited onto the exterior surfaces of the electrically conductive microfibers, or tungsten silicide, if tungsten is deposited onto the exterior surfaces of the electrically conductive microfibers.