Nanowires and Nanorods of metallic and semiconducting materials have drawn a lot of research interest because of their unique physical properties. Nanowires have two quantum-confined dimensions and one unconfined dimension. therefore, the electrical conduction behaviour of nanowires is different from that of their bulk counterpart. In nanowires, electronic conduction takes place both by bulk conduction and through tunneling mechanism Properties.
Nanowires can display the properties of a metal, an insulator or a semiconductor, depending on the materials that make up the tiny structures. Metals conduct electric currents well, and insulators are not conductive. Semiconductors fall somewhere between; they carry some charges when the conditions are right. Semiconductors are most useful in making transistors for computers. When configured correctly, they can become switches or amplifiers of electricity. Semiconducting nanowires allow engineers to make very tiny transistors.
Some nanowires are ballistic conductors, or the type that allow electrons to pass without allowing them to collide with the conductor's atoms. Because of this, they don't create heat as other conductors do.
Applications:
Nanowires may also play an important role in nano-size devices like nanorobots. Nanowires may play an important role in the field of quantum computers.Au nanowires are used to assemble biological species.For instance, they can be used as a master (mould) in nano-imprinting, and as a masking layer for dry etching (patterning transfer) into other materials. the nanowires have been used as building blocks for electronics, optics, mechanics, and sensing technology.