Nanowire building blocks

Huang, Y. Duan, X. Cui, Y. Lauhon, L. Kim, K. Lieber, C. M. 2001. Logic gates and computation from assembled nanowire building blocks. Science 294 1313-1317. 

Cui, C. and Lieber, C.M., Functional nanoscale electronic devices assembled using silicon nanowire building blocks, Science, 291, 851,2001. 

Y. Cui, C. Lieber, Functional Nanoscale Electronic Devices Assembled Using Silicon Nanowire Building Blocks, Science 291 (2001) 851. 

Chen RS, Lu CY, Chen KH, Chen LC (2009) Molecule-modulated photoconductivity and gain-amplified selective gas sensing in polar GaN nanowires. Appl Phys Lett 95 233119 Chung SW, Yu JY, Heath JR (2000) Sihcon nanowire devices. Appl Phys Lett 76 2068-2070 Costa-Fernandez JM (2006) Optical sensors based on luminescent quantum dots. Anal Bioanal Chem 384 37-40 Cui Y, Lieber CM (2001) Functional nanoscale electronic devices assembled using silicon nanowire building blocks. Science 291 851-853... 

In general, nanotechnology MBBs are distinguished for their unique properties. They include, for example, graphite, fullerene molecules made of various numbers of carbon atoms (C60, C70, C76, C240, etc.), carbon nanotubes, nanowires, nanocrystals, amino acids, and diamondoids [97]. All these molecular building blocks are candidates for various applications in nanotechnology. 

The fundamental physical properties of nanowire materials can be improved even more to surpass their bulk counterpart using precisely engineered NW heterostructures. It has been recently demonstrated that Si/Ge/Si core/shell nanowires exhibit electron mobility surpassing that of state-of-the-art technology.46 Group III-V nitride core/shell NWs of multiple layers of epitaxial structures with atomically sharp interfaces have also been demonstrated with well-controlled and tunable optical and electronic properties.47,48 Together, the studies demonstrate that semiconductor nanowires represent one of the best-defined nanoscale building block classes, with well-controlled chemical composition, physical size, and superior electronic/optical properties, and therefore, that they are ideally suited for assembly of more complex functional systems. 

In general, the various synthesis strategies for nanocarbon hybrids can be categorized as ex situ and in situ techniques [3]. The ex situ ( building block ) approach involves the separate synthesis of the two components prior to their hybridization. One can rely on a plethora of scientific work to ensure good control of the component s dimensions (i.e. size, number of layers), morphology (i.e. spherical nanoparticles, nanowires) and functionalization. The components are then hybridized through covalent, noncovalent or electrostatic interactions. In contrast, the in situ approach is a one-step process that involves the synthesis of one of the components in the pres-... 

Extraction of nanowires from mesoporous supports is important and desirable for their application as a building block for electronic devices and catalyst preparation. In addition, more detailed characterization of metal/alloy nanowires is available by their extraction from the sihca templates. Isolation of the Pt nanowires from mesoporous templates has also been tried by dissolving FSM-16 and HMM-1 with aqueous HF or NaOH solution, but the nanowires were readily decomposed into Pt aggregates. However, the Pt nanowires were successfully extracted as their original forms from the sihca templates using HF and [NBu4]Cl as a surfactant in a benzene/ethanol solution. It is reasonably implied that the extracted wires are... 

Kovtyukhova, N. I. Mallouk, T. E. Nanowires as building blocks for self-assembling logic and memory circuits. Chem.-Eur. J. 8, 4354-4363 (2002). 

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