We have demonstrated a variety of solution-phase approaches for the synthesis of dimensionally confined nanostructures of a wide range of materials. These materials include metals (Ag and Au) and semiconductors (Te, Se, and Ag2Se) with interesting properties such as high electric, thermal, and ionic conductivities, piezoelectricity, and photoconductivity. Direct and indirect routes for the solution-phase synthesis of 1-dimensional nanostructures are presented. Control over morphology, chemical purity, and crystallinity are well maintained. We show that by using solution-phase methods, it is possible to generate not only high yields of nanowires but also more complex structures such as tubes and co-axial nanocables. These nanostructures are ideal for the study of size-confinement effects on electrical and optical properties, and also as the future interconnects and active components in nanoscale electronic and electromechanical devices.
An approach to metallic photonic crystals is demonstrated by using gold-silica core-shell colloids as the building blocks. The formation of gold-silica core-shell nanoparticles involved a base-catalyzed hydrolysis of precursor TEOS and subsequent condensation of silica onto the surfaces of gold cores. The obtained core-shell colloids were monodispersed in size and their shell thickness could be controlled in the range of a few nanometers to about 500 nm. The core diameter could also be varied from ~5 nm to ~100 nm. The core-shell colloids were then employed as building blocks to self-assemble highly ordered three-dimensional photonic crystals using a non-lithographic method. The photonic band-gap properties were characterized by taking the transmittance and reflectance spectra.
This paper describes the use of confined self-assembly in organizing monodispersed spherical colloids into face-center-cubic crystalline lattices for photonic crystals applications. Using this method, we were able to conveniently control the thickness, the density and structure of defects, and the orientation of a crystal. Inverse opals of polymers and ceramic materials were also synthesized by templating corresponding precursors against three-dimensional colloidal crystals. As an extension to this method, we also demonstrated the hierarchical self-assembly that involved building blocks with sizes on two different scales, and its application in forming inverse opals.
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