Progress in self-directed growth of molecular assemblies
Abstract
Nanowires, if synthesized in solution or in a CVD reactor need to be harvested and appropriately placed on a substrate for study or application. Structures grown with absolute position control, directly onto a substrate that is amenable to study have inherent advantages. Not only are complex handling issues circumvented, but new hybrid properties of the substrate and line can be attained. By growing molecular assemblies on silicon, a wealth of opportunities become available (1). It becomes possible to directly study molecule-molecule and molecule-substrate coupling. Modes and materials for creating molecular wires can be studied in a rational fashion. Methods for transport determination can be employed. Our original work in this area employed styrene molecules on H-terminated Si(100) to create a self-directed growth procedure for making molecular assemblies of predefined absolute position, order, extent and composition - all without the need for arduous atom-by-atom crafting with a scanned probe (2). In this talk many material and mechanistic advances in this area will be summarized. These include new chemical linking strategies, post attachment rearrangements in tethered molecules, kinetic measurements and a non-aromatic intermediate stabilization stategy. 1) Controlled Molecular Adsorption on Si: Laying a Foundation for Molecular Devices, R.A. Wolkow, Ann. Rev. Phys.Chem., 50, 413-41, 1999. 2)Self-Directed Growth of Molecular Nano Structures on Silicon, G.P Lopinski, D.D.M. Wayner and R.A. Wolkow, Nature 406, 48 (2000).
- Publication:
-
APS March Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- March 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004APS..MARU16001W