One to 2-mu m long, <= 400-nm wide amorphous tris(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminum (III) (Alq3) nanowires (NWs) grown from the 15-min boiled outer shell membrane (OSM) of the hen's egg and from the OSM solution cast film via thermal evaporation with a source temperature of 260 degrees C and a substrate temperature of 138 degrees C under 6.7 x 10(-2) Pa gave about 1.4 to 1.7 times more photoluminescence emission than the control Alq3 sample did, which was grown from the plain glass surface. The characteristic bonding energies of C 1s X-ray photoelectron signal at 282 eV, O is signal at 529 eV and N is signal at 397 eV suggested that the relatively high NW density for the 15-min boiled OSM and the OSM solution cast film, was mainly caused by the formation of the O C-O-C O anhydride moiety and the C N group in the proteinaceous OSM at high temperature of 90 degrees C to 100 degrees C. Therefore, we proposed that the 15-min boiled OSM and the OSM solution cast film apparently served as good templates by providing nano-regions of high concentration of the O C-O-C O anhydride groups and the C N groups for nesting the Alq3 gas molecules to form nano-conical Alq3 nuclei for the growth of long and narrow NWs. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
