Capturing electrified nanodroplets under Rayleigh instability by coupling electrospray with a sol–gel reaction

We demonstrate that electrospray could be combined with a sol–gel process to produce non-spherical nanostructures. The electrosprayed nanodroplets solidified under Rayleigh instability via a controlled sol–gel reaction, enabling us to capture elongated intermediates in the solid form. This work demonstrates the potential of electrospray, a remarkably simple and well-established technique, for fabricating one-dimensional nanostructures by taking advantage of the Rayleigh instability phenomenon. It also provides direct experimental evidence to confirm the existence of Rayleigh instability for electrified nanodroplets.