SGER: Step-Place-Grow Assembly - An Approach to Economical, Environmentally Benign Manufacturing of Ordered Nano Structures

这个探索性研究（SGER）奖的小额赠款为探索制造有序纳米结构的新方法提供资金。 该Step-Place-Grow组装方法将利用可重复使用的模板来创建纳米结构，这些纳米结构可以完全在原位生长，也可以从先前制造的纳米粉末、管、线、棒和纤维组装到位。 初步工作将集中于生长高度和宽度尺寸小于100 nm的聚苯胺纳米线。 聚合物纳米线对于电子和传感器应用具有相当大的兴趣，并且该方法提供了在单个集成步骤中为这些应用创建接触纳米线的能力。 问题，如模板材料从生长的结构和精确填充的纳米通道生长前释放将在这里进一步解决我们的经验与聚苯胺的建设。 将探讨与大批量生产相关的制造问题，如在大面积基板上工作，适用于多层结构，以及处理制造变化和不均匀性。此外，还将探讨制造问题，如工艺参数和控制，以解决工艺可变性、可重复质量和工艺产量。 如果成功的话，分步-就地-生长组装方法有可能成为一种可行且经济的生产工艺，原因如下：消除了拾取和放置，消除了对模板的重复构建和蚀刻去除的需要，短的工艺链，适用于宽范围的材料，适用于大面积，纳米结构容纳的控制，并且有可能构建不同材料和不连续区域的结构的大阵列。此外，这种方法具有环保意识，因为它提供了一种构建涉及纳米颗粒和纳米线的结构的途径，其中纳米元件仅以所需数量包含和制造，同时使用较短的工艺链。 该方法还提供了一个通用的解决方案，定位纳米元件的问题。

This Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) award provides funding for the exploration of a new approach towards manufacturing of ordered nano structures. The Step-Place-Grow Assembly approach will utilize a reusable template to create nano stuctures that can be either totally grown in place, or assembled in place from previously made nano-powders, tubes, wires, rods, and fibers. Initial work will focus on growing polyanline nano-wires with height and width dimensions of less than 100 nm. Polymer nano-wires are of considerable interest for electronics and sensor applications and the process offers the ability to create contacted nano-wires for these applications in a single integrated step. Issues such as template materials release from the grown structure and precise filling of the nano channels prior to growth will be further addressed here building on our experience with polyaniline. Manufacturing issues related to large volume production such as working across large area substrates, applicability to multi-level structures, and dealing with manufacturing variation and non uniformity will be explored. Additionally manufacturing issues such as process parameters and control to address process variability, repeatable quality and process yields will be explored. If successful, the Step-Place-Grow Assembly approach has the potential to be a viable and economical production process due to the following: the elimination of pick and place, elimination of the need for the repeated building and etching removal of templates, short process chain, applicability to wide range of materials, applicability to large areas, control of nano-structure containment, and potential to build large arrays of structures of dissimilar materials and disconnected regions. Additionally, this approach is environmentally conscious since it offers an pathway to the building of structures involving nanoparticles and nanowires, in which the nano-elements are contained and made only in the required number, while using shorter process chains. The approach also provides a generalized solution to the problem of positioning nano elements.