Amorphous feather-like boron nanowires

Large-scale arrays of feather-like boron nanowires have been successfully prepared using magnetron sputtering with a target of highly pure boron and boron oxide mixture. The morphology, microstructure and composition of the feather-like boron nanowires are characterized in detail using scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and electron energy-loss spectroscopy. Elemental mapping has been used to investigate the distribution of boron and oxygen in the boron nanowires. It is revealed that the feather-like boron nanowires possess the microstructure of outer oxidized coating layer and inner pure boron. The thickness of the outer oxidized layer is about 1–2 nm. Our results may provide opportunities to understand the fundamentals of boron chemistry and to fabricate new nanodevices.