Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic school have developed a new, ultra-simple method for making layers of silver that measure only billionths of the meter thick. The process, which requires no advanced gear and works on almost any surface area including silicon wafers, could have significant implications for nanoelectronics and semiconductor manufacturing. Sang-Kee Eah, assistant professor in the Department of Physics, employed Physics, and Astronomy at Rensselaer, and graduate college student Matthew N. Martin infused fluidic toluene – a common industrial solvent – with silver nanoparticles. The nanoparticles form a flat, carefully loaded coating of silver in the surface area of the fluidic in which it meets air. By putting a droplet of the gold-infused fluidic on a surface, and waiting to the toluene to evaporate, the research workers have been set to effectively coat many many surfaces – including a 3-inch silicon wafer – using a monolayer of silver nanoparticles.

“There has been great progress in recent years in the chemical syntheses of colloidal nanoparticles. However, fabricating a monolayer film of nanoparticles that may possibly be spatially uniform at all duration scales – from nanometers to millimeters – nevertheless proves to be instead a challenge,” Eah said. “We hope our new ultra-simple method for creating monolayers will inspire the imagination of other scientists and engineers for ever-widening software of silver nanoparticles.”

Watch a video demonstration of the new fabrication process at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqkwM9o1s-w

Results of the study, titled “Charged silver nanoparticles in non-polar solvents: 10-min synthesis and 2-D self-assembly,” have been released recently in the journal Langmuir. study the journal paper at: http://dx.doi.com/10.1021/la100591h

Whereas other synthesis methods take several hours, this new method chemically synthesizes silver nanoparticles in only 10 minutes with no need for any post-synthesis cleaning, Eah said. In addition, silver nanoparticles created this way have the special property of being charged on non-polar solvents for 2-D self-assembly.

Previously, the 2-D self-assembly of silver nanoparticles within a toluene droplet was reported with excess ligands, which slows lower and complicates the self-assembly process. This required the non-volatile excess ligands to be removed within a vacuum. In contrast, Eah’s new method guarantees that silver nanoparticles float to all your surface area of the toluene drop in much less than an person second, with no need for any vacuum. It then can take only quite a lot of minutes to the toluene droplet to evaporate and leave behind the silver monoloayer.

“The extension of the droplet 2-D self-assembly method to other types of nanoparticles, that include magnetic and semiconducting particles, is challenging but holds much potential,” Eah said. “Monolayer motion pictures of magnetic nanoparticles, for instance, are significant for magnetic information storage applications. Our new method may possibly possibly be set to support tell new and fascinating applications.”

Source: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute