Scanning electron micrograph image showing platinum wires being lifted away from the surface of the UNCD electrode. Inset: Higher magnification image showing a single ring of platinum removed from the UNCD surface. |
Scientists from Argonne National Laboratory Center for Nanoscale Material’s Nanofabrication Group,
working with users from the University of Wisconsin-Stevenson Point,
have discovered a fast, simple, scalable technique for solution-based,
electrochemical synthesis of patterned metallic and semiconducting
nanowires from a reusable, nonsacrificial, ultrananocrystalline diamond
(UNCD) template.
The
process involves fabrication of wafer-level electrochemical cells
consisting of alternating insulating and conducting UNCD thin films.
Unique electrochemical properties of electrically conducting nitrogen
incorporated UNCD not only provide a robust electrode platform for
electro-deposition of micro/nanowires of various materials, but also
facilitate easy peeling-off of deposited micro/nanowires for repeat use.
This bench-top technique is easy and quickly produces patterned
nanowires on a large scale with diameters that are not predefined by the
template, and do not require vacuum or clean-room processing. This
offers a path for studying nanoscale phenomena and allows for
process-scale development of a new generation of nanowire-based devices.
Citation
D.B.
Seley et al., “Electroplate and Lift Lithography for Patterned
Micro/Nanowires Using Ultrananocrystalline Diamond (UNCD) as a Reusable
Template,” ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 3(4), 925-930 (2011)
