Catherine Y. Han

Nickel antidot arrays on anodic alumina substrates.

Large-area nickel antidot arrays with a density up to 1010/cm2 have been fabricated by depositing nickel onto anodic aluminum oxide membranes that contain lattices of nanopores. Electron microscopy images show a high degree of order of the antidot arrays. Various sizes and shapes of the antidots were observed with increasing thickness of the deposited nickel. New features appear in the antidot arrays in both magnetization and transport measurements when the external magnetic field is parallel to the current direction, including an enhancement and a nonmonotonous field dependence of the magnetoresistance, larger values of the coercive field and remanence moment, and smaller saturation field.

Atomic layer deposition for the conformal coating of nanoporous materials

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is ideal for applying precise and conformal coatings over nanoporous materials. We have recently used ALD to coat two nanoporous solids: anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) and silica aerogels. AAO possesses hexagonally ordered pores with diameters d ∼ 40nm and pore length L ∼ 70 microns. The AAO membranes were coated by ALD to fabricate catalytic membranes that demonstrate remarkable selectivity in the oxidative dehydrogenation of cyclohexane. Additional AAO membranes coated with ALD Pd films show promise as hydrogen sensors. Silica aerogels have the lowest density and highest surface area of any solid material. Consequently, these materials serve as an excellent substrate to fabricate novel catalytic materials and gas sensors by ALD.

Facile synthesis of highly aligned multiwalled carbon nanotubes from polymer precursors

We report a facile one-step approach which involves no flammable gas, no catalyst, and no in situ polymerization for the preparation of well-aligned carbon nanotube array. A polymer precursor is placed on top of an anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) membrane containing regular nanopore arrays, and slow heating under Ar flow allows the molten polymer to wet the template through adhesive force. The polymer spread into the nanopores of the template to form polymer nanotubes. Upon carbonization the resulting multi-walled carbon nanotubes duplicate the nanopores morphology precisely. The process is demonstrated for 230, 50, and 20 nm pore membranes. The synthesized carbon nanotubes are characterized with scanning/transmission electron microscopies, Raman spectroscopy, and resistive measurements. Convenient functionalization of the nanotubes with this method is demonstrated through premixing CoPt nanoparticles in the polymer precursors.

Thin films and surface patterning with BEDT-TTF based charge transfer salts.

Densely covered (ET)X 2 thin films can be selectively electrodeposited on gold electrodes. The insulating (ET)X 2 films are converted to (ET) 2 X conductive films through a novel conproportionation reaction. Both ET and ET salt patterns can be prepared with the PDMS stamping technique with use of an ET derivative with a dodecanethiol chain for surface derivatization. These solution procedures open up the possibility to prepare conductive and superconductive charge-transfer salt thin films as well as patterns.

AAO nanowells : synthesis, in-situ growth study, and applications in ultra-sensitive chemical detection.

Anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) membranes consist of locally highly ordered nanopores. The pore diameter (20-200 nm) and pore-to-pore distance are controlled through the anodizing voltage and the choice of etching solution. High aspect ratio over 1,000 can easily be achieved which makes AAO membranes the ideal templates for making nanowires and nanotubes. In this work, the early stage of nanopore formation was studied in-situ with the use of small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) and glazing incidence GISAXS techniques. The nanopores were found to grow as a function of the square root of growth time. The resulting short nanopores or nanowells with length below 200 nm were further characterized with use of SEM and AFM. These AAO nanowells showed interference color. Their reflectance UV-Vis spectra indicated strong angular dependence and can be understood with a simple single layer (nanoporous alumina over aluminum) model. These spectra are influenced by the nanowells thickness and diameter. Therefore, large array of interferometric AAO nanowells sensors are possible. When these nanowells are coated with Ag or Au thin films, in addition to enhanced interference color, highly sensitive surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) effect has been observed. These results will be presented.

The Role of Organic Conductors in a World of Nanoscience

Nanoscience, i.e., the study of assemblies from the submicroscopic (in the optical spectrum) to the molecular length scale, is one of the most pervasive topics in current materials chemistry and physics research, with interdisciplinary potential from biology to engineering. Nanoscience opportunities for molecular conductors research exists especially in the area of patterned conducting films, which could eventually lead to molecular electronics applications. Our work has focussed on the fabrication of micro-and nanocrystalline films of BEDT-TTF and their conducting salts on noble micro-and substrates, where the crystallization was forced to follow previously deposited nanoscale patterns of specially derivatized thiols. These patterns were produced either by the dip-pen nanolithography or micro-contact printing techniques. In preparation for the advent of new focussed synchrotron beam lines with 10-20 nm spot sizes, we have mapped the sulfur Kα fluorescence emitted by the patterned BEDT-TTF films. The sulfur fluorescence distribution is a sensitive tool to assess the quality of the deposited patterns.