Nanocrystal/Polymer Hybrid Building Blocks for Nanofabrication

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Much progress has been made in the synthesis and characterization of a variety of nanoscale materials with varying size, shape and composition. However, a significant bottleneck exists in applications due to the lack of reliable and cost-effective means of patterning or assembling nanoscale materials into structures suitable for devices and functional systems. The program proposed here aims to develop hybrid materials that can facilitate processing of nanocrystals especially to make them compatible with readily available microfabrication techniques. The hybrid materials considered here will consist of inorganic nanocrystals encapsulated in monodisperse polymer colloids. This combination provides an attractive opportunity to merge unique properties of nanoscale materials with the processibility of polymers opening up numerous possibilities in fabrication and manufacturing of devices and systems containing tunable nanostructures. Compatibility with readily available microfabrication processes to build organized nanocrystal arrays will be examined.Hybrid building blocks considered here can integrate nanoscale materials into currently employed top-down approaches to fabrication and processing, potentially expediting the realization of numerous applications in areas such as electronics and photonics. The multidisciplinary approach including chemical synthesis, microfabrication, microscopy and optical and electrical characterization is central to this research and provides an important educational component. Multifaceted challenges to be tackled here will provide ample educational opportunities needed for researchers in emerging cross-disciplinary fields. Diverse topics on nanoscale materials to be explored in this research program will also serve as a basis for several topics for undergraduate and graduate courses.