Cuprous oxide nanowires have been synthesized by heating copper foil in the presence of oxygen rich environment using a hot tube vacuum thermal evaporation method. The effect of growth parameters such as growth time, temperature and oxidative environment on the morphology of the nanowires is investigated. The growth of cuprous oxide nanowires from copper foils thermally oxidized in the presence of oxygen rich at temperatures between 300 and 500 0C. The nanowires were formed within the temperature range of 400 - 500 0C with diameters and length between 25 - 100 nm and length 1 - 4 ?m, respectively. This gave an estimate of aspect ratio around 40. Observation from FESEM results revealed the optimal growth of cuprous oxide nanowires which occurred at oxidation times for 1h, 1/2h and 25 minutes and flow rates of oxygen at 0.09 psi, 0.12 psi and 0.08 psi. The atom% of copper and oxygen were measured using EDX and their existence were later confirmed by XRD, essentially indicated by 40% an 60% of copper and oxygen contents, respectively.

Zinc oxide nanowires have been synthesized using a hot tube vacuum evaporation method. Essentially, ZnO powder and silicon substrate were placed in upper and lower streams of a horizontal quartz tube, respectively and heated via a furnace up to 960 C for about 1 hour. During the heating process, evaporated ZnO vapour was transported to lower stream and deposited onto the substrate containing Au catalyst at constant pressure of 1 torr. The substrate tilt angles were chosen for 0∞ and 30∞ and argon flow rates between 1.1-5.0 sccm. Observation on FESEM/EDX and field emission results revealed the optimal growth of ZnO nanowires which occurred at an angle 30∞ and flow rate of 5 sccm. Parameters such as atom% of Zn and O and aspect ratio were measured and analysed.