Bottom-up nanofabrication

Table 2. Some Approaches in Reductive (Top Down) and Synthetic (Bottom Up) Nanofabrication...

Ruiz-Hitzky, E., Aranda, P. and Darder, M. (2007) in Bottom-Up Nanofabrication Supramolecules, Self-Assemblies, and Organized Films (eds. Ariga, K. and Nalwa, H.S.) American Scientific Publishers 9,... 

Important techniques for bottom-up nanofabrication include soft lithography and surface self-assembly. Also the use of containers such as carbon nanotubes to confine molecular scale objects in one dimension is a useful tool. 

Ariga K, Hill JP, Li Q (2007) Layer-by-layer assembly as a versatile bottom-up nanofabrication technique for exploratory research and realistic application. Phys Chem Chem Phys 9 2319-2340... 

Bottom-Up Nanofabrication The creation of nanoparticles that will combine to create nanostructures that meet the requirements of the application. 

Self-Assembly Related to bottom-up nanofabrication. A technique that causes functionalized nanoparticles to chemically bond with or repel other atoms or molecules to assemble in specified patterns without external manipulation. 

Nanotechnology is the science that deals with the study and manipulation of structures at the nano level. At the nano level, things are measured in nanometers, or 1 billionth of a meter (lO" ). The symbol for nanometers is nm. Nanoparticles can be produced using a process known as tojr-down nanolabri-cation, which starts with a larger quantity of material and removes portions to create the nano-sized material. Another method being developed is bottom-up nanofabrication, in which nanoparticles will create themselves when the necessary materials are placed in contact with one another. 

Bottom-Up Nanofabrication. Bottom-up nanofabrication is one approach to nanomanulacturing. This process builds a specific nanostructure or material by combining components of atomic and molecular scale. Creating a structure this way is time-consuming, so scientists are working to create nanoscale materials that will spontaneously join to assemble a desired structure without physical manipulation. 

The top-down nanofabrication has been used with obvious success by the semiconductor industry for several decades now, with physicists and engineers manipulating progressively smaller pieces of matter by photolithography and related techniques, but the top-down approach is quickly reaching its physical and economic limits. On the other hand, the bottom-up nanofabrication offers ultimate limits of miniaturization, opens virtually unlimited possibilities concerning the design and construction of functional nanostructured materials, and has the potential to be... 

We can peer into the future with reasonable confidence. We can be confident that we will witness many breakthroughs based on bottom-up approaches in the next decades, leading to nanostructured materials with novel and unique material properties and functionalities, and to increasingly sophisticated nanodevices. While cnrrent indications are that bottom-up nanofabrication methods will not completely replace top-down nanofabrication techniques, in the decades to come we will see more applications originating either from bottom-up techniques alone or from hybrid approaches combining the strengths of bottom-up and top-down methods. 

Wagner BD. In Ariga K, Nalwa HS, editors. Bottom-up nanofabrication. Stevenson Ranch, CA American Scientific Publishers 2009. p. 1-33. 

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