Patent ID: 7182812

Claim:
A method of synthesizing bulk quantities of oxide nanowires of crystalline noncatalytic low melting metals, comprising the steps of: placing said film of noncatalytic low-melting metal on a substrate in a low pressure chamber; exposing said noncatalytic low melting metal and to a microwave plasma containing a mixture of a monoatomic oxygen and a monoatomic hydrogen heated to a temperature above the melting point of said low-melting metal; forming a film of molten low-melting metal on said substrate; activating and decomposing the gas phase and exposing to selected amounts of hydrogen and oxygen in a gas phase; forming multiple nucleations and growth of noncatalytic low melting metal nanostructures directly therefrom creating highly crystalline metal oxide nanowires devoid of any structural defects said nanowires having a range of from 20 to 100 nanometers thick and a range of from ten to a thousand microns long.