Observation of van der Waals driven self-assembly of MoSI nanowires into a low-symmetry structure using aberration-corrected electron microscopy

Observation of van der Waals driven self-assembly of Mo6S 3I6 nanowires into a low-symmetry structure was presented using aberration-corrected electron microscopy. Both high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and annular dark-field (ADF) imaging are used, while an aberration-corrected scanning TEM (STEM) was applied to examine low-diameter bundles of the nanowires. DFT calculations demonstrate the metallic nature of these nanostructures, in which the Mo d-S p hybridization is responsible for the wire stability. The self-assembly of the wires is driven by the minimization of London interaction energy. These wires have a huge potential for nano-interconnects, as the presence of S in the linkage sites is ideal for linking to gold-terminated external connections