DNA for the Assembly of Nanoelectronic Devices Biotechnology and Nanoelectronics

摘要

The report highlighted the progress by Liu and Grinstaff group on the development of nanoscale structures and sensors. We have made progress along several directions under ARO support, including: (1) Developed an enabling technology to directly deposit metal, semiconductor and conducting polymer nanostructures on surface. The technology, electrochemical dip-pen nanolithography (EDPN), is based on electrochemical reactions within a tiny water meniscus between an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) tip and surface structures. We have shown that it can be used as a versatile tool to not only create nanostructures of various materials on surfaces, but also to modify existing nanostructures at specific locations to fabricate novel devices; (2) Nanoscale junctions made of different materials can be created by EDPN technique. Nanoscale junctions between polyanniline and polythiophene can be easily created. Such junctions can function as nanoscale electronic devices such as diodes and light emitting diodes; (3) EDPN can be used to modify the surface of nanotubes to change their electronic properties. By selecting the right chemical to deposit onto the nanotubes surfaces, the nanotubes can be changed from p type semiconductors to n-type semiconductors; (4) A new method that can grow single walled carbon nanotubes with precise control of locations and orientations has been developed. This is the first time such high degree of control has been demonstrated for one-dimensional nanomaterials. The capability to control the location and orientation of nanotubes makes the large scale fabrication of nanotube electronics a possibility; (5) An international workshop on the DNA Supramolecular Assemblies was held at Avignon, France on the 5th-6th of May, 2004.