Bottom-up device fabrication via the seeded growth of polymer-based nanowires. Issue 24 (8th June 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: El-Zubir, Osama; Kynaston, Emily L.; Gwyther, Jessica; Nazemi, Ali; Gould, Oliver E. C.; Whittell, George R.; Horrocks, Benjamin. R.; Manners, Ian; Houlton, Andrew
• Is Part Of: Chemical science. Volume 11:Issue 24(2020)
• Page Start: 6222
• Page End: 6228
• Publication Date: 2020-06-08
• Subjects: Chemistry -- Periodicals; 540.5
• DOI: 10.1039/d0sc02011g
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2041-6520

Abstract

Abstract : Living crystallisation-driven self-assembly facilitates the bottom-up assembly of electronic devices. Abstract : The bottom-up assembly of nanoelectronic devices from molecular building blocks is a target of widespread interest. Herein we demonstrate an in situ seeded growth approach to produce a nanowire-based electrical device. This exploits the chemisorption of block terpolymer-based seed fibres with a thiophene-functionalised corona onto metal electrodes as the initial step. We then use these surface-bound seeds to initiate the growth of well-defined one-dimensional fibre-like micelles via the seeded growth method known as "Living crystallisation-driven self-assembly'' and demonstrate that they are capable of spanning an interelectrode gap. Finally, a chemical oxidation step was used to transform the nanofibres into nanowires to generate a two-terminal device. This seeded growth approach of growing well-defined circuit elements provides a useful new design tool for bottom-up device fabrication.