3D Ordered Assemblies Of Micro/Nanowires Using Fibrous Building Blocks

Three-dimensional (3D) ordered assemblies of semiconductive micro/nanowires are made by match-stick assembly of fibrous building blocks (FBBs). A glass tube filled with powders of starting material is processed drawn into centimeter-long, micrometer-diameter FBBs with controlled diameter and spacing. By repeating a draw-cut-stack process, the diameter and spacing of filling material can be programmably reduced from millimeters to hundreds nanometers. The FBBs are densely packed into 3D ordered structures such that wires in one layer are at defined angle (θ) relative to those in the adjacent layers, where θ is between 0 to 180°. The electrical and Seebeck coefficient measurements at bundled wires and single wire level confirm semiconducting and thermoelectric behavior of wires. By direct manipulating microscale FBBs, the method allows high yield production of 3D ordered micro/nanowires with controlled position and orientation, enabling the construction of a new class of micro/nanomaterials. ©The Electrochemical Society