Polycrystalline oxide nanowires

While analyzing reasons for structural instability of polycrystaUine materials, one should admit that in individual nanowires some processes, indicated in Chap. 20, are impossible. That is why one can expect improvement of thermal and, therefore, temporal stability of parameters of devices based on them, in comparison with devices based on nanoparticles. For example, there are no contacts with other nanowires in devices based on individual nanowires, and therefore it is impossible for any mass transfer from one to another. However, in network of nanowires (Ponzoni et al. 2006), which are often being considered as an alternative to polycrystalline materials in metal oxide sensors, such processes are possible, and the consequences of these processes should be the same as in the case of nanoparticles. 

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