First 3-D Patterned Nanostructures
Patterned tin and nickel panels self-assemble into nanoboxes.
Katherine Bourzac 08/20/2009
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![]() panels in these nanoboxes. The left column is a close-up of the tin hinge material. The other columns show the boxes at different magnifications. The panels are patterned with the letters "JHU" with line-widths of 15 nanometers. Credit: ACS/Nano Letters |
Chemists have become very skilled at building 2-D nanostructures, but making 3-D patterned structures for drug delivery, electronics and other applications has proved more challenging. In particular, no one has been able to make 3-D structures with patterned surfaces.
David Gracias and Jeong-Hyun Cho of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore have overcome this problem. They first made arrays of patterned, cross-shaped nickel structures on a silicon wafer, then added tin hinges. When placed in a plasma etching chamber, the flat structures folded up into cubes and released from the wafer. To make nanocubes as small as 100 nanometers a side, the researchers added another panel.
The work is described online in the journal Nano Letters, where the researchers write that it should apply to other polyhedral shapes as well.




Guest (democratsarefascists)
"We are the Borg."
"Resistance is futile, provided you wait there long enough for us to assemble 5 trillion more cubes."
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