Guided Growth of Nanoscale Conducting Polymer Structures on Surface-Functionalized Nanopatterns

Harnessing Smectic Ordering for Electric-Field-Driven Guided-Growth of Surface Topography in a Liquid Crystal Polymer

The guided-growth strategy has been widely explored and proved its efficacy in fabricating surface micro/nanostructures in a variety of systems. However, soft materials like polymers are much less investigated partly due to the lack of strong internal driving mechanisms. Herein, the possibility of utilizing liquid crystal (LC) ordering of smectic liquid crystal polymers (LCPs) to induce guided growth of surface topography during the formation of electrohydrodynamic (EHD) patterns is demonstrated. In a two-stage growth, regular stripes are first found to selectively emerge from the homogeneously aligned region of an initially flat LCP film, and then extend neatly along the normal direction of the boundary line between homogeneous and homeotropic alignments. The stripes can maintain their directions for quite a distance before deviating. Coupled with the advanced tools for controlling LC alignment, intricate surface topographies can be produced in LCP films starting from relatively simple designs. The regularity of grown pattern is determined by the LC ordering of the polymer material, and influenced by conditions of EHD growth. The proposed approach provides new opportunities to employ LCPs in optical and electrical applications.

Remotely Controlled in Situ Growth of Silver Microwires Forming Bioelectronic Interfaces

There is a pressing need to advance our ability to construct three-dimensional (3D) functional bioelectronic interfaces. Additionally, to ease the transition to building cellular electronic systems, a remote approach to merge electrical components with biology is desirable. By combining 3D digital inkjet printing with bipolar electrochemistry, we remotely control and fabricate conductive wires, forming a first of its kind contactless bionic manufacturing procedure. It enables controlled fabrication of conductive wires in a three-dimensional configuration. Moreover, we demonstrate that this technology could be used to grow and interface conductive conduits in situ with mammalian cells, offering a new strategy to engineering bioelectronic interfaces. This represents a step change in the production of functional complex circuitry and considerably increases the manufacturing capabilities of merging cells with electronics. This approach provides a platform to construct bioelectronics in situ offering a potential paradigm shift in the methods for building bioelectronics with potential applications in biosensing and bioelectronic medicine.

Local scanning probe polymerization of an organic monolayer covalently grafted on silicon

The possibility of lateral extension of conjugation within a covalently grafted molecular layer by a scanning probe-based method was tested. A molecular layer derived from ω-(N-pyrrolyl)propanol was formed on n-type Si(111) surface. Application of large sample biases greater than ±4 V during conductive atomic force microscope (AFM) scans under vacuum resulted in changes of mechanical and electrical characteristics of the molecular layer: the tip-sample conductance was increased greatly, the friction was reduced significantly, and the surface potential of the scanned area was increased. The reduction in friction could be attributed to molecular linking formed within the layer. The increased conductance suggested extended conjugation among the pyrrolyl end groups. Therefore, it was inferred that the biased AFM scan successfully induced local polymerization/oligomerization within the covalently grafted molecular layer.

Nanoscaled surface patterning of conducting polymers

In continuing the steady development of integrated-circuit-related fabrication, the ability to pattern conducting polymers into smaller and smaller sizes in order to realize devices with enhanced performance or even wholly new properties begins to take a more prominent role in their advanced applications. This review summarizes the recent advances in top-down and bottom-up patterning of conducting polymers on surfaces with different approaches including direct writing, in-situ synthesis or assembly, etching, and nanoscratching. All of the latest emerging strategies have the potential to go beyond the current state of the art towards real progress in terms of high-precision positioning, high resolution, high throughout, higher stability, facile processing, and lower-cost production.

Electrochemical Patterning of Polyaniline on Insulating Substrates

A facile method of patterning of various dielectric substrates (glass, quartz, and polyimide) with thin films of conducting polyaniline with at least 10 μm resolution is demonstrated. This method can be applied for the fabrication of functional conducting polymer interconnections between microelectrode arrays separated by dielectric gaps. Such interconnections may find applications in microelectrochemical sensors and electrocatalytic systems.

Synthesis, monolayer formation, characterization, and nanometer-scale photolithographic patterning of conjugated oligomers bearing terminal thioacetates

The synthesis of alpha-thioacetate terminated quaterthiophene and phenylene-thiophene materials, possessing thioacetate, oxetane, and alkyl groups at their omega-termini, is described. After deprotection these molecules were adsorbed onto Au films and the resulting self-assembled monolayers were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and friction force microscopy (FFM). FFM indicated that monolayers formed by the dithioacetates had the highest coefficients of friction, followed by the oxetane-terminated adsorbates, with the alkyl-functionalized materials showing the lowest friction coefficients. These data may be understood in terms of differences in molecular packing. The quaterthiophene adsorbates also yielded higher friction coefficients than their phenylene-thiophene counterparts. Micrometer-scale patterns were fabricated by mask-based exposure to 244 nm light, and characterized by FFM. Nanometer-scale patterns were fabricated using near-field exposure and characterized by FFM. The images obtained demonstrated that features of conjugated oligomers with high spatial resolution (59 nm, ca. lambda/4) were achievable.

Kinetic study of the formation of polypyrrole nanoparticles in water-soluble polymer/metal cation systems: a light-scattering analysis

A facile way to synthesize nanometer-sized polymer (polypyrrole, PPy) particles is explored on the basis of the formation of complexes between water-soluble polymers and metal cations in aqueous solution. The metal cation is used as an oxidizing agent to initiate the chemical oxidation polymerization of the corresponding monomer, and the water-soluble polymer effectively provides a steric stability for the growth of polymer nanoparticles during the polymerization process. Light-scattering analyses are performed to give insight into the behavior of the complexes in aqueous solution. In addition, major physical parameters affecting the formation of polymer nanoparticles are investigated, including hydrodynamic radius, radius of gyration, shape factor, and viscosity. By judicious control of these parameters, PPy nanoparticles with narrow size distribution can be readily fabricated in large quantities. It is also possible to control the diameter of the nanoparticles by changing critical synthetic variables. Importantly, PPy nanoparticles of approximately 20-60 nm in diameter can be prepared without using any surfactants or specific templates; this novel strategy offers great possibility for mass production of polymer nanoparticles.

Sponge-like nanostructured conducting polymers for electrically controlled drug release

An electrically controlled drug release (ECDR) system based on sponge-like nanostructured conducting polymer (CP) polypyrrole (PPy) film was developed. The nanostructured PPy film was composed of template-synthesized nanoporous PPy covered with a thin protective PPy layer. The proposed controlled release system can load drug molecules in the polymer backbones and inside the nanoholes respectively. Electrical stimulation can release drugs from both the polymer backbones and the nanoholes, which significantly improves the drug load and release efficiency. Furthermore, with one drug incorporated in the polymer backbone during electrochemical polymerization, the nanoholes inside the polymer can act as containers to store a different drug, and simultaneous electrically triggered release of different drugs can be realized with this system.

Directional growth of metallic and polymeric nanowires

This work delineates the mechanism by which directional nanowire growth occurs in the directed electrochemical nanowire assembly (DENA) technique for growing nanowires on micro-electrode arrays. Indium, polythiophene, and polypyrrole nanowires are the subjects of this study. This technique allows the user to specify the growth path without the use of a mechanical template. Nanowire growth from a user-selected electrode to within +/- 3 microm of the straight line path to a second electrode lying within a approximately 140 degrees angular range and a approximately 100 microm radius of the selected electrode is demonstrated. Theory for one-dimensional electrochemical diffusion in the inter-electrode region reveals that screening of the applied voltage is incomplete, allowing a long range voltage component to extend from the biased to the grounded electrode. Numerical analysis of two-dimensional multi-electrode arrays shows that a linear ridge of electric field maxima bridges the gap between selected electrodes but decays in all other directions. The presence of this anisotropic, long range voltage defines the wire growth path and suppresses the inherent tip splitting tendency of amorphous polymeric materials. This technology allows polythiophene and polypyrrole to be grown as wires rather than fractal aggregates or films, establishing DENA as an on-chip approach to both crystalline metallic and amorphous polymeric nanowire growth.

Guiding the self-assembly of a second-generation polyphenylene dendrimer into well-defined patterns

A second-generation polyphenylene dendrimer 1 is shown to self-assemble into nanofibers. To guide the formation of the dendrimer fibers into well-defined patterns, 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltrichlorosilane is grafted in the gas phase onto a silicon substrate. De-wetting of the solution on the nanopatterned surface results in the formation of a nanostructured template, into which fiber growth subsequently occurs under the constraints set by the de-wetted morphology.

Electrochemical deposition of polypyrrole nanolayers on discontinuous ultrathin gold films

Ultrathin layers of polypyrrole (PPy) were electrochemically grown between microelectrodes on a Si/SiO(2) substrate. Conducting nanolayers of PPy are directly grown onto ultrathin discontinuous gold (Au) film between the microelectrodes, with thicknesses in the range 10-100 nm. The system therefore forms a novel (PPy/Au) nanocomposite conductor. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging and conductivity measurements indicate that at all thicknesses a relatively uniform film is formed but with significant roughness that reflects the roughness of the metallic island layer. In PPy/Au films with thickness ∼10 nm, the small barriers around the gold islands dominate the conduction, and as the film thickness increases to 100 nm the intrinsic conductivity of highly doped PPy dominates the charge transport.

Chemical template directed iodine patterns on the octadecyltrichlorosilane surface

A carboxylic-terminated nanometer-scale chemical pattern on an octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) surface can guide the deposition and crystallization of iodine, forming an iodine pattern on the chemical pattern. The iodine in the pattern is gel-like when fabricated by the solution-deposit method. In contrast, a dendritic, snowflake-shaped polycrystalline iodine sheet is formed by the vapor-phase condensation method. The data demonstrate that iodine is a good tracing and visualizing agent for studying liquid behavior at the nano scale. The topography of the iodine stain reveals that the "coffee ring" effect can be suppressed by reducing the pattern size and increasing the evaporation rate. The chemical template-bound iodine pattern has an unusually low vapor pressure and it can withstand prolonged baking at elevated temperature, which differs significantly from bulk iodine crystals.

Contact transparency of nanotube-molecule-nanotube junctions

The transparency of contacts between conjugated molecules and metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes is investigated using a single-particle Green's function method which combines a Landauer approach with ab initio density functional theory. We find that the overall conjugation required for good contact transparency is broken by connecting through a six-member ring on the tube. Full conjugation achieved by an all-carbon contact through a five-member ring leads to near perfect contact transparency for different conjugated molecular bridges.

Anisotropic growth of conducting polymers along heparin-modified surfaces

We have studied the possibility of making biocompatible, conductive patterns on a substrate by controlling the lateral growth rate of conducting polymers upon electropolymerization. Surface modification with heparin was found to enhance the lateral growth of polypyrrole, especially in the presence of dodecylbenzenesulfonate, and thus the micropatterning of heparin around electrodes leads to the formation of polypyrrole patterns.

Functional nanostructures from surface chemistry patterning

Nanoscale devices are expected to provide important advances for a number of applications. While many methods to generate nanoscale patterns exist, their use is confined to a relatively narrow range of materials. To fabricate nanoscale structures of a material with useful properties, the most convenient route is to transfer the geometry of an existing pattern into another material. Methods to achieve this pattern transfer are summarized and organized in this review. Methods to generate the original patterns, as well as applications of the final structure are also described.