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Fabrication and characterization of dielectric encapsulated millions of ordered kilometer-long nanostructures and their applications (INFIBRENANOSTRUCTURE)
Start date: Oct 1, 2012, End date: Sep 30, 2017 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The objective of this project is the realization of a radically new nanowire fabrication technique, and exploration of its potential for nanowire based science and technology. The proposed method involves fabrication of unusually long, ordered nanowire and nanotube arrays in macroscopic fibres by means of an iterative thermal co-drawing process. Starting with a macroscopic rod with an annular hole tightly fitted with another rod of another compatible material, by successive thermal drawing we obtain arrays of nanowires embedded in fibres. With the method, wide range of materials, e.g. semiconductors, polymers, metals, can be turned into ordered nanorods, nanowires, nanotubes in various cross-sectional geometries. Main challenges are the thermal drawing steps that require critical matching of the viscoelastic properties of the protective cover with the encapsulated materials, and the liquid instability problems and phase intermixing with higher temperatures and smaller feature sizes that require high thermal and mechanical precision. Initially, fabrication by drawing will begin with soft amorphous semiconductors, phase change materials, polymers of interest in high temperature polymers, followed by a wider range of materials, low melting temperature metals, metals and common semiconductors (Si, Ge) in silica glass matrices. In this way nanowires that are ordered, easily accessible and hermetically sealed in a dielectric encapsulation will be obtained in high volumes. Potentially, these nanowires are advantages over on-chip nanowires in building flexible out of plane geometries, light weight, wearable and disposable devices. Ultimately, attaining ordered arrays of 1-D nanostructures in an extended flexible fibre with high yields will facilitate sought-after but up-to-now difficult applications such as the large area nanowire electronics and photonics, nanowire based scalable phase-change memory, nanowire photovoltaics, and emerging cell-nanowire interfacing.

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