Fabrication of ordered catalytically active nanoparticles derived from block copolymer micelle templates for controllable synthesis of single-walled carbon nanotubes.

We report the use of the block copolymer micelle approach to produce various transition metal nanoparticles such as iron, cobalt, and nickel with precisely controlled size and spacing. These uniformly sized catalyst nanoparticles derived from the block copolymer micelle approach have enabled the synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with narrow size distribution. Because of the excellent film forming ability of the polymeric material, metal-bearing surface micelles produced from the solution micelles can be distributed uniformly on a surface, resulting in evenly dispersed catalyst nanoparticles. As a result, high quality and uniformly distributed CNTs have been synthesized. Spatially selective growth of CNTs from a lithographically patterned metal-bearing micelle film has been achieved. The polymer template approach can potentially be extended to synthesize single-metallic and bimetallic catalytically active nanoparticles with uniform size and spacing and is fully compatible with conventional lithographic process. Additionally, catalyst nanoparticles produced from this method do not coalesce at high growth temperature. All these attributes make this approach a promising fabrication pathway for controllable synthesis of CNTs.

Uniformly sized gold nanoparticles derived from PS-b-P2VP block copolymer templates for the controllable synthesis of Si nanowires.

A monolayer of gold-containing surface micelles has been produced by spin-coating solution micelles formed by the self-assembly of the gold-modified polystyrene-b-poly(2-vinylpyridine) block copolymer in toluene. After oxygen plasma removed the block copolymer template, highly ordered and uniformly sized nanoparticles have been generated. Unlike other published methods that require reduction treatments to form gold nanoparticles in the zero-valent state, these as-synthesized nanoparticles are in form of metallic gold. These gold nanoparticles have been demonstrated to be an excellent catalyst system for growing small-diameter silicon nanowires. The uniformly sized gold nanoparticles have promoted the controllable synthesis of silicon nanowires with a narrow diameter distribution. Because of the ability to form a monolayer of surface micelles with a high degree of order, evenly distributed gold nanoparticles have been produced on a surface. As a result, uniformly distributed, high-density silicon nanowires have been generated. The process described herein is fully compatible with existing semiconductor processing techniques and can be readily integrated into device fabrication.