(191n) Organosilane Array Nanopatterns for the Study of Nanoconfinement

We present methods to fabricate nano-arrays of organic and inorganic materials by chemical vapor deposition combined with colloidal particle lithography. Polystyrene particles of size 300, and 900 nm were used to make lithographic masks on oxidized silicon wafer substrates. Aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APTMS) and octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) 2D array patterns with different structures from nanoholes, to nanorings, and to nanodots are fabricated through the reactions between the silanol groups in the colloidal interstitial space facilitated by the existence of the water menisci.

The inert methyl terminated OTS nanorings show potential being used as the nanovessels for hydrophobic materials such as long chain alkanes, aspirin and oleylamine capped AuNPs. It provides not only the method for obtaining ordered structures for these species, but also the approach to study the nanoconfinement.  These species are easily rinsed away so that OTS nanorings could be reused for many times. Also it has potential to be used as nano-reactors for two different hydrophobic species.

The APTMS nanopatterns were further functionalized with 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid (MUA) protected gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) through EDC chemistry to get NP 2D array. Based on our previous studies of NP inducing organic nanorods, organic crystal network generated on the nanoparticle arrays will be fabricated. This represents a novel approach to connect and further functionalize nanoparticle-based thin film devices.