Figure 2. Production of indefinitely long nanostructure arrays.

(a), A 2 m nanowire array converted into core-shell nanospheres, demonstrating that fibre integrity is not significantly altered by heat treatment, and that nanostructure arrays can be produced in macro-scale lengths by the present method. Cross-sectional images demonstrate that (b), nanowire phase alignment is not compromised following the production of (c), nanosphere arrays, but the out-of-phase alignment of parallel nanostructure arrays prevents the observation of all core features on a single cross-section. In addition to sheath-embedded arrays, core-shell (d), nanowires and (e), nanospheres can be fabricated following the etching of the PES polymer sheath.