Directed assemblies of nanoparticles are promising building blocks for emerging nanotechnology applications (sensors, nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, catalysis, etc.). Compared with randomly distributed particle layouts, the fabrication of nanoparticle arrays with well-defined position, orientation, and interparticle distance has received considerable attention.
Advances in lithography have enabled the precise and reproducible patterning of features from tens of nanometers over the macroscopic scale. A synergetic combination of colloidal nanostructures with lithographic patterning allows the precise control that is necessary to produce highly integrated nanostructure assemblies on all length scales.
Scientist at Munster, Germany demonstrated a facile approach to the fabrication of 1D single-particle arrays of sub-30-nm Au particles in larger-sized grooves (up to 220 nm in width) with tunable interparticle distances. The main difference compared with previous work is the application of templates with larger feature size than the particle size, thus allowing less technological demand in lithography. 2D single-particle patterning can be achieved by using the same principle. The width of the groove and the thickness of the electric double layer of the Au particles are dominating factors that determine the arrangement of the particles. This strategy provides a versatile means, with less lithographic expenditure for prepatterns, to realize the regular low-dimensional arrangement of Au nanoparticles with tunable interparticle distances, which should result in, for example, alteration of the plasmon resonance and thus be useful to develop concepts for (bio)sensing. This novel assembly method can be applied to other metal, semiconductor, or oxide nanoparticles that can form double charge layers.
This report is recently published in Scientific Journal Small, 2009
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