In this work we report on structural and Raman spectroscopy measurements of pure and Sn-doped In₂O₃ nanowires. Both samples were found to be cubic and high quality single crystals. Raman analysis was performed to obtain the phonon modes of the nanowires and to confirm the compositional and structural information given by structural characterization. Cubic-like phonon modes were detected in both samples and their distinct phase was evidenced by the presence of tin doping. As a consequence, disorder effects were detected evidenced by the break of the Raman selection rules.

We merged the microwave synthesis approach with an extension of the nonhydrolytic sol–gel method to induce highly selective crystallization of MoS₂ layers over graphene sheets. This hybrid material showed superior electrocatalytic activity in hydrogen evolution reactions.

In the last five years, several excellent reviews about oriented attachment (OA) have evidenced the advances achieved in this research area, detailing the growth mechanism and the kinetic models. The main focus of this review is to examine the dependence of the OA mechanism on the colloidal state and to demonstrate how the colloidal state modifies the OA mechanism. Basically, we can define two main possible approaches to achieve self-organization or mutual orientation of adjacent nanocrystals. One is the effective collision of particles with mutual orientation controlled by the number of collisions. This type of growth occurs in a well dispersed colloidal suspension and results in a statistical growth process. The second way is through coalescence induced by particle rotation. This mechanism must be dominant in a weakly flocculated colloidal state in which there is significant interaction among particles. This type of process leads to the formation of complex structures.

The study of structures based on nonstoichiometric ${\text{SnO}}_{2-x}$ compounds, besides experimentally observed, is a challenging task taking into account their instabilities. In this paper, we report on single crystal ${\text{Sn}}_3{\text{O}}_4$ nanobelts, which were successfully grown by a carbothermal evaporation process of ${\text{SnO}}_2$ powder in association with the well known vapor-solid mechanism. By combining the structural data and transport properties, the samples were investigated. The results showed a triclinic semiconductor structure with a fundamental gap of 2.9 eV. The semiconductor behavior was confirmed by the electron transport data, which pointed to the variable range hopping process as the main conduction mechanism, thus giving consistent support to the mechanisms underlying the observed semiconducting character.