A guide for nanowire growth
Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: Human fascination with growth has been around since the Neolithic Revolution began more than 10 millennia ago. With it grew the science and understanding behind the underlying mechanisms found in nature, which are often applied toward practical benefits such as bigger produce or higher yields. For example, farmers plant seeds in specific and optimally spaced positions that allow dense and organized fields to develop (Fig. 1 A ), whereas villagers in Cherrapunjee, India, grow tree roots across rivers to form living bridges. Other aesthetic applications include guided growth of vines over an arbor (Fig. 1 B ) or even living sculptures and “tree shaping” (Fig. 1 C ). The same underlying principles apply to nanowires: guiding growth using catalyst seeds along a template, as developed by Schvartzman et al. and presented in PNAS (1). At the nanoscale, this becomes an indispensable tool for synthesizing the precisely ordered patterns required by advanced electronic applications. Nature is often a model to mimic (2, 3) but is also a barrier that technology must overcome; ultimately, it can be tamed by exploiting these forces through engineering to produce bountiful results.
Fig. 1.
Guided growth in nature and nanowires. ( A ) Vineyard: Farmers create linear patterns by planting seeds in precise locations. ( B ) Grand Arbor in South Bank Australia: Vines growing along a horizontal template. ( C ) “Basket Tree”: The art of tree sculpture, a combination of guided growth, training, and grafting, is used to slowly manipulate the formations that trees can make. This piece of art was created by Axel Erlandson, completed in 1947, and is located in Gilroy Gardens, CA. ( D ) Tilted SEM images of vertically grown forest of VLS nanowires. ( E ) SEM image of guided horizontal growth on a crystal surface, showing highly parallel synthesis of precisely located nanowires with end-to-end registration. ( F ) This process enables direct integration of the nanowires …
[↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: xduan{at}chem.ucla.edu.
[1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
Authors: Nathan O. Weiss, Xiangfeng Duan
Language: English
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2000702951