title: Smartly aligning nanowires by a stretching strategy and their application as encoded sensors.
abstract: The nanotechnology world is being more and more attracted toward high aspect ratio one-dimensional nanostructures due to their potentials as building blocks for electronic/optical devices. Here, we propose a novel method to generate nanowire patterns with assistance of superhydrophobic flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates. Micropillar gaps are tunable via a stretching process of the PDMS surface; thus, diverse nanowire patterns can be formed by stretching the same PDMS surface in various ways. Importantly, square nanowire loops with alternative compositions can be generated through a double-stretching process, showing an advanced methodology in controlling the alignment of nanowires. Since alternative fluorescent molecules will be quenched by diverse chemical substances, this alternative nanowire loop shows a selective detection for diverse target compounds, which greatly improves the application of this nanowire patterning approach. Furthermore, such alternative nanowire patterns can be transferred from pillar-structured surfaces to flat films, indicating further potentials in microcircuits, sensitive sensors, and other organic functional nanodevices.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yuchen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods*; D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes / Q000737:chemistry*; D055119:Elastic Modulus; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000737:chemistry; D008422:Materials Testing; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D010316:Particle Size; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013499:Surface Properties; D014159:Transducers
chemical_list: D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; C013830:baysilon