Thin layers of indium tin oxide are widely used as transparent coatings and electrodes in solar energy cells, flat-panel displays, antireflection coatings, radiation protection and lithium-ion battery materials, because they have the characteristics of low resistivity, strong absorption at ultraviolet wavelengths, high transmission in the visible, high reflectivity in the far-infrared and strong attenuation in the microwave region. However, there is often a trade-off between electrical conductivity and transparency at visible wavelengths for indium tin oxide and other transparent conducting oxides. Here, we report the growth of layers of indium tin oxide nanowires that show optimum electronic and photonic properties and demonstrate their use as fully transparent top contacts in the visible to near-infrared region for light-emitting devices

We report the observation of urchin-like nanostructures consisting of high-density spherical nanotube radial arrays of vanadium oxide nanocomposite, successfully synthesized by a simple chemical route using an ethanolic solution of vanadium tri-isopropoxide and alkyl amine hexadecylamine for 7 days at 180 o C. The results show that the growth process of the NanoUrchin occurs in stages, starting with a radial self-organized arrangement of lamina followed by the rolling of the lamina into nanotubes. The longest nanotubes are measured to be several micrometers in length with diameters of 120 nm and hollow centers typically measured to be 75 nm. The NanoUrchin have an estimated density of nanotubes of 40 sr -1 . The tube walls comprise layers of vanadium oxide with the organic surfactant intercalated between atomic layers. The interlayer distance is measured to be 2.9 ± 0.1 nm and electron diffraction identified the vanadate phase in the VO x nanocomposite as orthorhombic V 2 O 5 . These nanostructures may be used as three-dimensional composite materials and as supports for other materials.4